


Deconstruction-Reconstruction

by BrushDog



Category: DRAMAtical Murder (Visual Novel)
Genre: Canon Continuation, Hook-Up, M/M, Rare Pairings, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-05-25
Updated: 2015-10-29
Packaged: 2018-04-01 03:26:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 40,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4004071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BrushDog/pseuds/BrushDog
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>What sort of life can be born out of death? What sort of creation comes from destruction? Following the collapse of Oval Tower, plans and plots have been laid to waste. Yet even still, time moves on. Mink finds himself continuing his search for Toue. Sei finds himself continuing his search for death. In their pursuit, their paths cross, perhaps leading them to search for something new...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to the prologue of my MinkSei opus. Originally I'd wanted to write a set of fics that explored the idea of Sei reaching out to different boyfriends on routes that aren't theirs and how the relationships grow from there, but then I got lazy so Mink's is the only one that's getting anywhere.
> 
> This will be a longer fic, as it's already clocking in at 12,000 words and 6 chapters in my gdocs when it's not even done yet. However, that means I can post regularly so expect to see weekly updates until I run out of backlog. (Though I'll hopefully keep on schedule after that.) Tags and rating will be updated as the work goes on!

Sei knew that he shouldn't have expected it to end with the destruction of Oval Tower.

His decision to take the tower down had been an impulsive one. It was hardly the way that he had imagined his plan working. Yet despite his best efforts, despite the guiding hand that he had provided to Aoba along the way, his brother never reached him.

He didn't mind that. He was hardly upset by it. What Aoba had found instead was something more important to him. Aoba had proven that his power could not only destroy a person's mind in its fragile and vulnerable state, but it could also heal. He had brought down the barrier that restricted the one who was closest to him and, in that way, had brought them freedom.

In anyone else, Sei thought that might have inspired a feeling of jealousy. Perhaps it did, but he knew that sort of feeling would hardly serve any purpose. To ask Aoba for his power now, to beg for his own destruction when Aoba saw the healing properties his power held instead wouldn't serve, would it? If Aoba could create a new sort of "life" from the power of "death" then maybe, perhaps, Sei could "destroy" with his power of "creation."

That was how the idea budded inside him. Fueled by his own pain, his suffering at the hands of Toue and his experiments, it recklessly grew. For a moment he saw hope. He saw power in his own hands. He saw the ability to take what he had create it and bring it all crashing to the ground.

So, as simple as that, he reached out and he took it.

The scattered fragments of his consciousness surged across a spiderwebbed network that encompassed nearly the entirety of Platinum Jail. With each piece that returned to him, he felt the weariness and pain that had settled in his physical body more acutely. It hurt. It was burning and freezing, stiff and sore, stretched out and overstrained all at the same time. But with each and every piece, he tore little by little at the cage that Toue had built around him, at the cage that was Platinum Jail. The Alphas would be no more, Usui would return to just an empty casing like any other AllMate.

For the people of Oval Tower, he issued a warning. He knew very well how many of them had things that were precious to them. They had families, hopes, dreams and ambitions that were hardly contained solely within the massive network that Toue himself had built. For them, there was no desire to inflict suffering, no desire to hold sway over the masses, so he spared them.

However, for Toue's work, for the expansive knowledge and research that had been his life's work, Sei knew he could not be so kind. Though the man he called his father was absent, he knew that if any others were to come into possession of what he had achieved, he could hardly expect a favorable outcome. At the very least, in his final moments, he could bury it with his own body, with his own mind. Everything that had given birth to the existence that was "Sei" and everything that had been birthed from the strange powers that were "Sei" would meet the same fate, the same end.

As it drew to a close, the tower shaking as its self-destruct sequences began to initiate, servers full of data already scrambling and wiping decades of work from their systems, Sei opened his eyes.

He stared up, through the glass at the top of the tower, into the starry sky that had blanketed him in his sleep for so many nights of his life.

The sky, the room, his body, his mind. Soon, all of it would be no more.

Comforted, his lips curved into a weak smile. His mind was entirely his now, his consciousness whole again, and with it his body trembled at the sensation of a pain that he'd tried to escape for years on end.

"Goodbye," he whispered, and the tower fell.

However, that was not the end.

Sei didn't expect to feel pain again after that moment yet, somehow, he did.

The world had plunged into darkness as the floor gave out beneath him. His mind slipped into the unconscious grasp of what he was certain was death, but it did not stop there. Instead, somehow, he found his mind swimming, he felt the hazy sensation of wakefulness slowly returning to his mind.

Sei had never expected to open his eyes again, yet at that moment, he did.

The world around him was colored in a haze of black and white. He was sure the lines that they cut across the room were stark and straight but they blurred in his vision. His eyes weren't used to seeing yet.

He closed them again, his senses finally tuning in to the hum of the machines around him, the pressure of the needle through the back of his hand, of the sensors stuck to the sides of his head, the softness of the sheets, the sterile smell of the room. His mouth was dry, he swallowed.

He heard a door open at the far end of the room. Two sets of footsteps followed. Sei didn't even bother to open his eyes.

"Are you awake now, Sei-san?"

The pleasant voice was familiar. Crisp, polite syllables that he knew all-too-well falling from lips he could clearly imagine without the help of his eyes. The machines had likely already told him the truth, but Virus always thought that it was more polite to ask. Virus had always loved to make a game out of politeness. Sei would always play along.

He nodded against the pillows that propped his head up on the bed, his eyes slowly opening again. Even though he couldn't make out what sort of expression was on Virus's face, or on Trip's where he lingered behind, he kept his gaze on them. It was part of the game.

"Mhm. I'm awake now."

"Well, isn't that a pleasant surprise," Virus said. "You've been unconscious for nearly a full month now. As you can imagine, it was starting to become a bit worrisome."

"You weren't waking up, sleepyhead," Trip drawled. The blur of his arm moved, somewhere near the machines, fiddling with something. Virus wouldn't let him cause any real damage, so Sei had no cause for concern.

"I'm sorry that I worried you both," he said.

"I can assure you, it's nothing like that at all," Virus went on. "It's certainly well within the expectations that we held given the state in which we found you following the tower's collapse."

"My state?" Sei asked, widening his eyes in an expression that he hoped was curious.

"Yes. After all, your rooms were at the top of the tower weren't they, Sei-san? With the tower's collapse, a fall from that height would certainly be fatal in most situations. The height aside, the chance of being crushed by debris or injured in an electrical fire or other complications were considerably high."

"You could've gone splat," Trip supplied, helpful.

"While that was an outcome that we had feared, we were quite heartened to learn that it was hardly the case."

Sei blinked, slowly. Virus had known his plan, of course. After seeing the collapse of the tower, it was impossible to think that the other man wouldn't have realized the intention that Sei had put behind it. But instead, here he was, very much alive, and very much face to face with the man that he imagined was wholly responsible. This was Virus's game. He was setting his stage, laying the knowledge at his disposal out in such a way that it was absolutely clear to Sei what had forced his hand.

"Oh . . . " Sei said.

"You are very lucky, Sei-san," Virus smiled. Sei could hear it in the cadence of his voice. "It seems that the tower had certain emergency preventative measures in place just in case of such a collapse. Aside from the evacuation orders, the building's construction itself proved to be quite useful in delivering you safely to the ground."

"Right right. We found you sleeping like a baby."

"You had sustained minor injuries, and you were completely unconscious, but it wasn't a prognosis that couldn't be treated with a little proper medical attention."

"That's why we patched you up, Sei."

The blurred form of Trip moved, closing the distance to the edge of the bed now. He dropped down to the mattress heavily, the motion of it jostling Sei where he lay, twisting the sensors and needles attached to him. He blinked once, hardly out of surprise or fear, before he felt Trip's fingertips brush against his temple, sliding through his hair. It felt like a piece of fine sandpaper lightly running around the back of his palm, an unfamiliar sensation. He didn't wince.

"We patched you up good."

Trip was close enough now that Sei could tell by the white blur that the line of his teeth made that he was smiling.

Sei curled his lips, smiling in reply.

"Then, I'm grateful to the two of you," he lied.

"We're quite flattered to hear that," Virus said, his blurred form unmoving. "After all, protecting Sei-san is our job."

"Because we're bodyguards."

Trip's hand fell from Sei's hair, tugging as he dropped it. Sei could feel the pain, duller than it usually was. Part of him wondered at why it was like that.

"That's very true," Virus went on. "Even though Toue-san's whereabouts are unfortunately unknown at the moment, it wouldn't do well for us to allow any sort of harm to come to you. That's why, Sei-san, please feel free to take your time to rest up and recover. We'll be certain to keep a very close eye on you."

"Mhm," Sei closed his eyes at last, nodding. It was a defeat in some ways, a surrender in others. For now, it said, he would do as Virus had asked of him. "As long as I'm with you, I'll be safe."


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mink finds himself contemplating the future of Scratch and his own plots for revenge as Midorijima changes in the absence of Toue. His plans, however, seem to have attracted a very peculiar sort of attention.
> 
> Chapter contains a brief mention of human experimentation.

To say that Midorijima had been in a near state of chaos following the collapse of Oval Tower would be something of an understatement. While no outright rebellions were staged with the sudden vacuum of power, the upheaval that rippled violently outward from the destruction of Toue Inc. and the web that it had woven through the small island's police force and criminal underbelly was bracing. Mink had, of course, anticipated this sort of disturbance, this sort of destruction, but he had hardly imagined that he'd be alive to witness it with his own eyes. Yet with Scratch's members still firm and steadfastly loyal to him, and with Toue's whereabouts completely unknown, he was left with little choice but to weather the storm, holding his ground in hopes that an eventual return of peace to the island would allow him to take his leave.

Fortunately, Scratch's reputation served Mink quite well in the ensuing turmoil. Where Rhyme and Rib gangs alike began to vie for control over the territory opened up with the fall of Platinum Jail, even the most inexperienced leaders knew that trying to use the situation to their advantage to make a move on Scratch's territory would be suicide.

Mink made it abundantly clear to his men that they would be making no grabs for power, that they would not be extending themselves beyond their reach. Even with the police force in disarray as Akushima and other top personnel quietly resigned their posts, Mink reminded his men that the cops would still be out on the beat and, what's more, without Toue pulling the strings Midorijima's finest might actually feel inspired to shape themselves up into doing their jobs for once. The crackdown that followed would take care of any headstrong upstarts who thought that they could make a name for themselves and the examples made of them would serve to keep anyone who had managed to keep their hoard of scraps in line.

That aside, the unifying force that had brought the members of Scratch together, aside from Mink himself, was a shared experience at the hands of Toue's corrupt prison system. While Mink had made it clear that no one was allowed to leave the gang without his permission, he saw the stirring of dissent in the ranks. Not all of his men were as concerned with the reward of Toue's corpse. For many of them, the fight was already over.

It presented Mink with a problem.

The bulk of Toue's power was now displaced, but he couldn't be certain that the people of his tribe had been properly avenged without knowing for sure whether Toue lived or died. Without the tower or the walls of Platinum Jail to defend him, Toue was nothing more than a man. A man on the run, perhaps, a man who likely had access to resources that could have taken him anywhere in the world, for certain, but he was no longer a man who sat atop a throne set within the center of a lion's den.

It made Mink wonder whether Scratch was a necessity any longer.

He knew he would have to find an answer soon. While the gang trusted in his advice to lay low, the situation in Midorijima wouldn't work in his favor forever. The situation was already moving towards their tipping point. He'd gotten reports of patrol cars out in the vicinity of the Southern district, and incident reports from within Platinum Jail itself were falling. Peace was working its way back into the island, one day at a time.

He'd have to make his move. The day's reports had just come in exactly as Mink had expected they would. Takemoto and Yuzawa informed him that the Midorijima Police Department was set to announce their new police chief within the week. There would be a public ceremony, a speech and celebration within the week, but Mink's informants had already given him everything he needed to know about the man. He was older, not pushing retirement by any means but he was seasoned, and--what was most important--he had a long family history on the island. Rather than promoting one of the flunkies brought in by Toue and his operation, the department was reaching back to its roots, working to remind the Old Residential District that they worked for Midorijima and not Toue.

It was exactly what he'd expected from them. The root of the corruption had been weeded out, so the force was trying to start anew. If the men of Scratch wanted to run themselves up against police who actually had the best interests of their constitutions in mind, it wasn't for Mink to stop them. At the very least he knew that they would be treated fairly if that was their choice. He wouldn't hold any regret over letting them go like this.

But for now, his work with Scratch finished for the day. Putting his thoughts of what plan of action would be best from his mind, Mink stepped back into his room and dragged the heavy metal door shut behind him. Wasting no time, he reached into his coat to pull out his pipe, pressing more leaves into the bowl with his thumb before his hand went back to his pocket for his lighter. He took his first breath in as he sat at the chair facing the small altar in the corner. With a sigh, he blew the smoke out and up, looking down on the haze it cast over the totems arranged before him.

He closed his eyes, about to offer a silent supplication to the gods to ask their blessing, to his ancestors to ask their patience in his revenge that still laid incomplete when the insistent beep of his coil interrupted his thoughts.

Letting out a rough sigh, he put his pipe down on the altar, lifting his wrist to check the device. It was an incoming message notification. Pulling up the display, he frowned at the offending message's subject and sender.

"Please come for me. Captive Princess?"

From his shoulder, a familiar voice chimed in. "It's not a sender that I've seen before. Shall I analyze it?"

"Yeah," Mink agreed with a sigh, "Do it."

Having an AllMate was a necessity that couldn't be avoided in the work he'd done against Toue. As much as he disliked feeding into Toue's old technology, the bird had proved its use countless times in the past. The processing power and advanced AI system it was equipped with was much more than what a coil could offer. Still, there were moments when he found his thoughts lingering too long on the AllMate's intended functionality as its master's companion and he couldn't help but snort at himself, derisive. An artificial bird was not one of nature's creatures. He had no connection to metal and wires, to man made materials worked into an imitation of nature's beauty. The bird was a tool, nothing more.

He waited, patient, for the results of the bird's analysis. The fact that he'd received a message at all on his coil wasn't something that sat well with Mink. His coil was unlisted, his contact details shouldn't have been available on any public networks. Furthermore, he was certain that even his more colorful informants wouldn't resort to using a name like "Captive Princess." Either way, it would all come out in a moment.

"Analysis complete," the bird said, just as Mink expected. "The contents of the message are benign. It contains no malicious software or harmful programming. However, it has been sent through a series of proxies that make its origin difficult to place. As strange as it may sound, it does appear to be simply a spam message."

Mink snorted. "Just spam, huh?"

"According to my analysis, that is the most likely answer. Deleting it would be prudent."

Mink let out a small noise of assent, his only reply before he tapped the buttons of his coil, deleting the message. He was just about to power down the device display when the telltale notification sound chimed again. He grunted.

"Bird."

"That is strange," the bird said. "It's the same message again. The routing matches as well, although I still can't find a fix on the location. Our sender is very insistent."

Mink had already deleted the message by the time the bird finished talking. Only a split second later another sprung up in its place. Before Mink even had a chance to select the delete option, another popped up followed by another, then another, then another--his coil's speaker issuing a staccato beat as the notifications ran over each other, blending into an endless stream of sound.

"Block it," he ordered the bird, his voice rough with annoyance. "And find out who they are."

"It does look like my earlier analysis was incorrect," the bird said, sounding more amused than chagrined. "I will see what can be done to reject any further incoming messages."

Mink grunted, then flicked the button for his coil's screen to minimize.

Nothing happened.

He tapped it again. The device was hardly a higher end model, but it wasn't old enough to be showing signs of fatigue like that. The messages remained, glowing in the dim light of his room, mocking him. His fingers twitched. He pressed his lips together into a frown.

Finding his coil's contact information was one thing, but it was hardly unheard of that a spammer would be able to send to even an unlisted device. This, however, this was something different. This wasn't just some bored idiot trying to infect hapless victims who didn't exercise proper security with their devices. This was something deliberate. Someone was trying to reach him.

"Who the hell are you..." he muttered under his breath, into the empty room.

Not even a moment later, the messages disappeared, an application display screen opening up in front of his face. He grunted. The bird knew what it meant.

"I haven't detected any application downloads. It appears to be running remotely."

"Remove it," he said, watching as the application's install progress bar completed and countless windows opened themselves on his coil's screen once more. Yet, the text on these screens was different. Detailed notes, handwriting in the margins, charts and graphs of data points mapped on careful graphs, each window identified with a subject number in the upper right corner hovering over a small, black and white image--

"Bird. Wait."

"You'd like me to leave it as it is?" the bird asked, cocking its head to regard him with its single beady eye.

Mink rumbled, low in his throat, a sound of affirmation. His eyes tracked quickly over the text written across the topmost screen open on his coil.

``

>   
>  **Subject A3572-F.**  
>  **Age:** 16  
>  **Gender:** Female  
>  **Fluids Extracted:** Saliva, Perspiration, Lacrimal Discharge, Vaginal Discharge (Menstrual), Vaginal Discharge (Non-Menstrual), Blood.  
>  **Testing Phase 1:** At optimal weight and hydration levels, subject's fluids displayed no abnormalities under lab analysis or when concentrated for exposure to secondary experimental subjects.  
>  **Testing Phase 2:** At optimal weight levels with dehydration, there was no observed change in subject's fluids beyond expected parameters.  
>  **Testing Phase 3:** Subject deceased before sampling efforts could be made at decreased weight and optimal hydration levels.  
>  **Conclusion:** Further analysis of female fluid extractions to be found under file for subject A6145-F.

Mink's jaw set, his eyes narrowing at the display before him. The bird was watching him now. As an AllMate, it must have noticed the changes in his brainwave activity, the shift from irritation to something else entirely.

These files weren't spam messages at all.

He clenched his hand into a fist against his desk, squeezing until he could feel the bite of blunt nails against the fabric of his gloves. He held his hand there, only the slightest tremor running through his fingers. He let his breath out slowly, then reached up to close the screen.

There was another beneath it, the same sort of clinical description of observations and research performed until the life of the subject was expended. He read it all, then closed it. He read the next one as well, then the one after that.

After the final file, the twenty-third, he closed his eyes, letting out a slow breath that he hadn't noticed he was holding in, and whispered a prayer to the gods. The beep of his coil distracted him again.

"It's a surveillance video recording," the bird told him.

Mink's eyes opened, narrowed, and watched the screen. The angle was off, the image in black and white, but behind the road in the foreground of the screen, he could clearly see the imposing shape of Oval Tower lit up against Platinum Jail's perpetual night sky. At first he wondered if the video had glitched somehow. There was no movement apparent on the screen until suddenly a sleek black car drove in from the left of the frame. It stopped, the driver exiting first to step back and open the door allowing a tall man with a cane wearing a three piece suit to exit the vehicle.

The man nodded to the drive before he turned his gaze away from the camera, to the image of Oval Tower in the distance. Almost as if on cue, puffs of grey smoke appeared at the tower's base. The low rumble of a distant explosion sounded from the video, and in an instant the tower collapsed completely.

The man stood, unmoving, where he had watched the entire display. He remained that way for several more moments. Perhaps he said something to his driver, perhaps it was in silence, either way he stood too far for the security camera's microphone to pick it up.

Then, just as calmly and confidently as he had stepped out onto the scene, Toue returned himself to his vehicle. The driver shut the door behind him, returning to the front seat of the car before driving off to the right of the frame.

Slowly, the screen dimmed and his coil's display closed completely.

Silence hung in the air of his small room, palpably thick, as Mink stared into the space that the screen had once occupied.

At his shoulder, the bird shifted, lifting its head more fully. It must have been watching too.

"What a curious message."

Mink sighed, reaching for his pipe again. The bird's wings rustled against his ears, the AllMate lifting itself from his shoulder to rest at the corner of his bed in its habitual sleeping position.

"I'll see what can be done about preventing future transmissions," it quipped.

Mink drew smoke into his lungs, slowly, exhaling with a low sound of assent. He could barely hear the sound of the bird powering down over the rough drag of his own breath. For a moment longer, he stared, playing the message over again in his mind.

There was no doubt in his mind that this was a deliberate act. But more than that, whoever had done this as well informed. Even among his men, there was no one who knew what connection he held to those research subjects. Even beyond the reach of Scratch, there were few who knew that his objectives extended as far as Toue's death in addition to the destruction of Platinum Jail and Oval Tower. Whoever had sent this message had a network of information that stretched far beyond what Mink had previously thought possible.

Shaking his head, he cast the thoughts off. Whatever it was, it certainly wasn't worth his time now. Eyes closed, he set his pipe back against the altar, bowing his head to pray.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mink makes a decision, then finds help through an unexpected encounter.

The next day Mink made his announcement.

The members of Scratch had all gathered together in the open room that served as the gang's headquarters. Every member was in attendance, even those that Mink was fully aware had been making noises of dissent at their strictly enforced neutrality with Midorijima's recent state of affairs. It was almost a comforting sight. At least the power he had over them was enough to hold them for this long.

Mink stepped into the room with little preamble, moving to stand before the ragged couch that was his position. Shoulders squared, eyes narrowed, he looked out over his men, his hands pushed into his pockets in a stance of affected indifference. Every eye was on him. The whispers and hushed side conversations that had carried on when he entered the room were silenced. If he listened hard enough, he could hear Takemoto and Yuzawa breathing where they stood to either side of the couch.

"Listen up," he said into the silence. "Platinum Jail is gone but Toue remains at large. It looks like someone beat us to the punch, but they didn't finish the job. But taking down a tower isn't the same as hunting down a man on the run. If all you care about is running free without having to worry about becoming one of his little lab rats then you can get lost. I don't need any dead weight on my team unless it's Toue's head, Toue's death, and Toue's complete destruction that you want."

He met every eye in the room with a furrowed glare, enforcing the point. His men, even the dissenters, all kept their eyes fixed on his, their jaws set tight as they waited on his next words. He didn't know how many of them would stay, if any. He'd never asked for their understanding, only their obedience.

"I'm going on patrol now. Anyone who wants out better be gone by the time I'm back. Anyone who stays is in this until the end. Understood?"

"Yes, sir!" The force of every voice speaking in near-unison was something that Mink was accustomed to, but that didn't make it any less of a surprise given the circumstances.

He exhaled, roughly, snorting at the display of loyalty. It would probably be the last one he saw.

"Then hurry up and make up your minds."

With that he turned, his footfalls echoing against the concrete walls as he made his way to the exit. He slammed the metal door shut, leaving the eerie silence of Scratch's headquarters behind him. It was done now. Whether he would be left with everything or nothing in the end, he just had to wait and see. Either way, the path that laid before him was clear.

Toue's death would be by his hands.

\---

Even at their peak of operations, it was rare that Mink went out on the beat of Scratch's territory on his own. Surveillance duty was too lowly a task for the level of respect and reverence that he demanded from his men. Yet, all the same, it was a calming activity whenever he found that he had the chance or the excuse to make his way out onto Midorijima's streets. Scratch's headquarters were dank and isolated, with no space for natural light or even a hint of a breeze. It was a cage he'd built for himself, trappings that he willingly took on.

Out in the light of the sun, under a clear and cloudless sky, he could see the changes that his men had reported with his own eyes. As he made his way to the edges of his territory, there was a pointed lack of the hastily scrawled symbols that marked smaller upstart gangs trying to make their move on what he'd built over time. Fewer thugs crouched in alleyways, barely out of sight, waiting for an unsuspecting traveler to make their move. Those that did, of course, cowered and fled on their own when they heard the beat of Mink's boots against the pavement, the clank of metal from the chains about his wrists and neck.

As he made his way further into the city, moving vaguely in the direction of Aoyagi Street through alleyways and narrow streets, the changes became more apparent. Rather than the beat of feet on the ground marking the retreat of Ribsters or Rhymers from the blare of Akushima's megaphone, the same disgruntled youths bickered with each other in a lively fashion. Of course, all the jabs and jokes died down when Mink wandered past, but even from what he overheard he could tell the tenor of the conversation had changed. The undercurrent of paranoia and worry was gone from their words. The threat of arrest and torment no longer loomed over their activities. They were free to do as they wished now.

In the shopping and residential areas, it was the most stark. To the untrained eye, it would have hardly been visible. People still went about their business, men and women carrying bags of groceries, children and couriers running back and forth between the shops. But to Mink he could see the differences. In the distance, a police officer stood chatting amiably with a younger man, offering directions with no amount of conceit or ego in his posture or gestures.

Whether it was a displaced resident of Platinum Jail or a rare tourist to the island, it hardly made much difference to Mink. The fact was clear enough either way, Midorijima was finding itself again. It would endure, it would be more than just the destruction left in Toue's wake.

With a sigh, he turned to make his way back to Scratch's territory. He'd seen enough now, the time he'd given his men to make their choices was long enough as well.

A familiar weight settled on his shoulder as the bird made its landing from where it had been monitoring Mink's path from above.

"It's quite a lovely day today."

Mink grunted in assent.

"Do you think that many of them will choose to remain?"

"Who knows," he muttered. "If they leave, they leave. What I told them was the truth. I don't need them around if they're not willing to see this to the end."

"A sound argument."

Silence fell between them again. Mink maintained his gradual pace as he wound his way back through alleyways and side roads to his headquarters. He took a different path this time, just for the sake of observation, to see if there was anything else of note along the road he walked.

He had nearly made his way back to Scratch when he noticed a familiar figure crouched inside the mouth of an alleyway. His shoulders were hunched, hood pulled up tight over shock of bright purple hair at the top of his head. It was Shirogane, one of the more reliable information brokers that he'd made use of since Scratch's inception. Mink had no need for his information now, though he made a note that he'd have to reach out to the man and the others once he knew the scope of his plans against Toue.

Shirogane, however, seemed to have other plans in mind. When Mink stepped past his alleyway, the slight man's head snapped up, eyes bright as he recognized the sight of Scratch's head.

"Ah, Mink-san!" he called out, hands shoved too far into his pockets to make any sort of greeting, so he pushed off the wall he'd leaned against to dart out into the road instead. "If it isn't Mink-san. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

Mink sighed, slowing his pace as he turned to face Shirogane. "What is it?" he asked. He didn't have time to bother with the informant's games right now.

"Cheery as always, Mink-san! That's why they like you down at Scratch, isn't it?" Shirogane quipped with a toothy grin that hardly faltered when Mink fixed his glare on it. "Of course, of course," he went on, nodding to himself. "Everyone knows that you're someone to be feared and respected, a real paragon of leadership, you know? The word gets around a lot."

"Shirogane." Mink gave the man's name enough force to cut his babbling short. It was true that Shirogane was one of the best informants in the area, but that didn't mean that Mink was overly fond of the man.

"Ah, right, let's get down to business, huh?" Shirogane's head bobbed, his hands spreading wide, still shoved deep in the pockets of his jacket. The gesture looked ridiculous. "You know, as luck would have it, a really tasty little fish just swam right up into my nets the other day. I was just thinking that Mink-san would be the perfect guy to buy it. It's just your type. Perfectly your type! There's no one else who'd appreciate it like you would."

Mink stopped, waiting for Shirogane's stumbling gait to turn itself around before he fixed the other man with a gaze and one cocked eyebrow. Shirogane knew his objects as well as anyone else. If it was something that he thought Mink would buy, it had to be related to Toue. He was interested.

Shirogane took note of it with a wide grin. His hands pressed together inside his jacket pockets, palm to palm as he rubbed the fabric between them. "After Oval Tower fell, it seems like everyone's been getting really excited about what to do with Toue gone, but it doesn't seem like Toue's really gone for good, right? No body, no report, no one knows where he is! At least, except for my little friend."

A trail. Mink would hardly admit it out loud, but aside from the previous day's anonymous messages, he'd yet to find any trace on just where the man had gone. Whether he'd have Scratch's support or not, information on Toue's current whereabouts was beyond valuable.

He gave Shirogane an appraising look, then nodded once. "How much?"

If it was even possible, Shirogane's grin seemed to widen more, lips stretched tight over his teeth, his eyes crinkling at their corners with the force of it. "You always know how to speak my language, Mink-san."


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mink returns to Scratch and begins to set his plan in motion.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so sorry for disappearing for a while there. Life got hectic, so today you get two chapters! Thanks goes to the lovely [Tigerine](http://archiveofourown.org/users/sealink/pseuds/Tigerine) for helping to beta.

In the end, it turned out that Shirogane's information was hardly plentiful but it was significant. As would be expected of a man of his interests and reputation, Toue had hideouts and bunkers maintained at several locations throughout the mainland and even in a select few countries that were known to be lax in their treatment of wealthy international criminals. Mink was aware of the coordinates of several of these locations, having found the information in his digging on Oval Tower and Platinum Jai's security systems, but what Shirogane had been able to provide him was precise, detailed information on what each facility contained. Aside from coordinates, there were specs on the building constructions and, more importantly, security and surveillance operating systems.

If the video sent to his coil was legitimate, it was only sensible to assume that Toue had made his escape to one of these remote locations and was laying low until he was certain he could securely make his return. Even with the destruction of the tower, the true depths of depravity had not been exposed to the public eye. The news was even writing off the tower's destruction as a terrorist attack, hardly an angle that painted Toue himself in a negative light.

Security and surveillance information could be hacked. Although obtaining footage and records would prove difficult, something as simple as network activity and output should be a clear enough sign as to which facility was currently in use. Shirogane had given Mink everything he needed to tighten a noose slowly about Toue's throat. It was only a matter of time now.

The only remaining factor would be to determine how much of that rope he'd need to spin by himself. Mink couldn't give himself over to any sort of optimistic outlook yet. It could very well come to pass that this would be an undertaking he'd embark on alone. As he approached the hidden entrance to Scratch's headquarters and steadily made his way through the dark hallways, he reminded himself that at the very least the answer to that question was only moments away.

He stood before the closed door to the meeting area, his attention drawn to the sounds echoing down the hallways and through the metal door. He was certain that he hadn't been followed, of course. He always kept a close ear to the sound of his footsteps echoing against the walls when entering and exiting the Scratch headquarters. Reputation aside, only an idiot let their guard down. But what caught his attention now was the echoes of voices on the other side of the door.

It was certainly heartening to think that he wouldn't be alone in his endeavors, at least some of Scratch seemed to be of a mind to stay with him, but the volume of noise they were making seemed to imply something else entirely.

Mink sighed. There was no way to know without seeing it with his own eyes. Hesitation wasn't like him. He stepped forward, grabbing at the door's handle and firmly shoved it open against its track, closing his eyes to the screeching sound of metal against concrete. He stepped into the room, shoving the door shut behind him with crash and setting his hands on his hips before he opened them again.

Silence fell over the room. Mink's gaze slowly tracked over every member of Scratch present, making a silent inventory of who remained, and who had gone. Yet when his scan of the room was complete, it took a certain amount of self-control to keep from letting his eyes widen in surprise. Instead, he closed them again, snorting loudly with a rough, derisive laugh.

"It seems like you've made up your minds."

"Yanno, it was a little bit cruel to only give us a couple of hours to think it over, Mink-san." It was Takemoto who spoke up. He was standing toward the front of the group, posture relaxed as he fixed Mink with a lopsided grin. "But we all did a lot of thinking about it."

"It's true some of us were getting kind of antsy, Mink-san," Yuzawa chimed in, nodding emphatically. "Sure, someone beat us to the punch, but we're not the kind of guys who like just sitting around with our thumbs up our asses, right? Seeing Toue's shit go down was great! It was like we'd won it, right? But what you said sort of reminded us..."

"Even if that guy's pretty little tower's all gone, he's still out there, running free, after he pissed on our island like that!" Takemoto said, with a rumble of assent running through the crowd at his words.

"What you said set us straight. His jail's trashed, but we've gotta make him pay for what he's done."

The mumblings turned to outright shouts and yells with Yuzawa's fiery declaration. The men of Scratch raised their voices in a chorus of all the different colorful and creative ways they wanted to see the man who'd taken their island beaten down and punished for what he did.

There was a strange sense of pride in Mink that he wasn't certain how to place. These men were thugs. Murderers, rapists, muggers. They would just have easily committed the same sort of crimes that Toue had committed, albeit on a much smaller scale. To Mink, they were nothing more than tools. To attack a man like Toue, these were the sort of men that he needed. To make himself their leader, he'd changed the very person that he was. But to think that he'd be able to actually inspire them, to drive them to band together in the name of something that nearly seemed to resemble a just cause was unexpected to say the least.

He exhaled, rough, and pushed the thought aside. It didn't matter how this result had came to pass. At least for the moment, he found himself at an advantage. Yet even at an advantage, they were still rats scrabbling against a wounded lion. He couldn't let himself underestimate what Toue was capable of now.

Mink lifted one hand in the air and the raucous cries and shouts for Toue's demise silenced. He settled back, regarding his men once again, and spoke.

"There's no turning back now. Every one of you here is in this to the end. Don't think that you can let your guard down either. If you get caught or crushed, it's not my problem. We've got work to do. Got it?"

"Yes sir!" the cry rang out, echoing against the bare concrete walls. Somehow it sounded louder now than it had ever been before.

\---

Even with the full force of Scratch and Shirogane's information at hand, the task that lay before them was no easy matter. The distance separating their forces from the coordinates provided meant that any sort of direct reconnaissance would be impossible. They'd have to determine which of the locations proved the most fruitful and strike with all of their power. A mistake at this juncture would likely send Toue deeper into hiding, and would likely eliminate whatever fortunate leak had netted Shirogane his information. Mink didn't intend to make any mistakes.

Fortunately, Scratch was hardly lacking in members with the exact sort of technical aptitude that the task at hand called for. Part of that was due to sheer luck, Toue had reasonably felt less threatened by simple thugs and murders who could be dealt with by the yakuza or his corrupt police forces when compared to skilled hackers and cyberterrorists. The former could oftentimes be persuaded that it was in their best interests to lend their strength to Toue's cause. The latter more often than not found themselves with a one way ticket to Toue's special jails, no questions asked.

It was a boon to Mink, in the end. Although he had gathered a few more physically minded thugs to even out his numbers, Scratch was home to a surprising number of men with a variety of skills. At times like this, those lacking more cerebral abilities could be put to the task of gathering supplies and keeping interlopers out of their affairs. It would be impossible to stop the word from getting out that his gang was up to something. Information had hardly lost its value in the time since Toue's fall. Still, the element of surprise was lost to them if the wrong sort of information fell into the wrong hands. They had to play their cards close.

Fortunately, with the manpower at his disposal, it wasn't long before their work generated results. Mink stepped out from his room one morning, the bird on his shoulder, pipe in hand, to a rather enthusiastic greeting from the men. They were always respectful, in their own ways, but the enthusiasm of the gesture left him suspicious. He turned to Takemoto, who stood next to his door, almost as if he was waiting, and raised an eyebrow.

"Report," he said.

Takemoto's grin seemed to spread wider across his face. "We've got him," he declared, and a few of the members in the room let out whoops of joy at the declaration.

Mink acknowledged the words with a gruff sound, ignoring the ruckus made by the other members. Pride was good for morale, in the end. He fixed his gaze evenly on Takemoto and nodded. "Show me."

"Right over here," Takemoto nodded off to the side, letting Mink lead the way to the impromptu den of keyboards, monitors, and towers that the men had built up over the past several weeks. The wiry man with greasy hair who'd been crouched in front of them, Asegawa, scrambled to his feet so Mink could take his place.

Mink crouched down easily before the screens, the bird leaning forward as well to analyze the data brought up across the monitors. On one was a breakdown of network packet activity tracing from the bunker's physical IP, another showed the metering from the local utility company coupled with reports of a tapped line that had clearly been deleted from their internal ticketing system. It looked like even Toue wasn't completely off the grid. But the last, and most convincing piece of evidence, was pulled up on the center screen. In the middle of the screen, a small window was pulled up, looping footage that looked like it was recorded from a monitoring station set up by the local train company.

The image was grainy, it had been zoomed in to focus on the corner of the frame, but Mink knew exactly what he was seeing. At one second, a hole seemed to open up in the side of a rock face bordering the road running along the tracks. The next, a dark object seemed to cross the tiny gap that divided the edge of the frame from the hole before both of them vanished and the scenery returned to normal.

It could have very well been nothing, a glitch in the recording, a bear or some other animal wandering down from the mountains. Yet in Mink's mind, all he could see was the mysterious footage sent to his coil, the black and white image of Toue's car pulling away following the collapse of Platinum Jail. Coupled with the other evidence that his men had provided, the judgement was sound.

With a rough exhale, he stood, settling his hands against his hips.

"Who found that?" he asked, turning his gaze back to Takemoto.

"Ah, that was Asegawa here," Takemoto explained, slapping the man in question on the shoulder. Asegawa nodded, shoving his greasy hair from his face with a wide, seedy grin.

"I know how to talk to cameras," he said with a shrug. "We really get along."

"Hm," Mink nodded once in his direction. He was one who'd been caught trying to hack Toue's internal security system, though Mink was hardly unaware of the more prurient interests he set his talents to when Scratch's duties didn't occupy his time. Either way, the man's skill had proved useful. 

"Well done," was all he said.

"Thank you very much, Mink-san," Asegawa bowed, pushing his hair away once more as his head bobbed back up.

Mink paid him no more mind. "Where's Yuzawa?" he asked, raising his voice to be heard across the room.

"Ah, he's out on a pick up," Takemoto said. "Should be back soon though."

Mink nodded, turning back to face him. "I want a report of our supplies when he's back. Send him to my room. The rest of you, start arranging transport. We move out in two days."

A chorus of affirmative cries went up as Mink made his way back to his room. 

The bird waited until the door slammed shut behind them to offer its commentary.

"It does seem like matters are progressing quite well."

"Hn," Mink nodded.

"However," the bird continued, "Don't you think it would be prudent to allow more time for preparations?"

"The men are prepared," he said, his voice low so it wouldn't carry through the door even though he knew his men wouldn't dare to eavesdrop. Slowly, he lowered himself to sit before his altar, reaching for his pipe. "Two days is plenty of time."

"I'll trust your judgement," the bird said, moving to its post at the foot of his bed. "We'll see how well it goes soon enough."

"We'll see soon enough," he said, lips closing over the mouth of his pipe as he drew in a deep breath. He closed his eyes and held it in his mouth for a moment, tasting the acrid tang on his tongue and throat before he exhaled, slowly, letting the gray smoke curl in the air.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mink makes an unexpected discovery.

The two days that Mink had allotted passed in an almost dizzying flurry of activity. With only a single civilian airport operating on the island, purchasing tickets for even a smaller group without arousing too much suspicion from the authorities required plenty of caution in the form of dummy bank accounts and forged documents. Even though Japan's security on domestic travel was relatively lax, Mink knew well enough that they'd be keeping an eye on anyone leaving Midorijima with Toue's higher ups still unaccounted for. He'd rather not catch himself in the net cast to ensnare the man he was pursuing.

More to the point, the caution necessitated by the mainland's watchful eye meant that traveling with all the necessary equipment was out of the question. His men had already been at work collecting the supplies they could bring along without drawing attention: AllMate parts, Coil attachments, the sort of things that would help them take down the bunker's infrastructure and disable any security systems before they moved in. The rest they'd have to buy off of local gangs once they made their way to the mainland. Despite the years that had passed, there were still a few of his men who had strong enough connections the mainland's seedy underbelly that calling in a few favors wouldn't be out of the question.

So it was that two days later Mink and a few of his most trusted men made their way from Scratch's headquarters all the way to a small safe house on the mainland located just a short drive from the bunkers location. The house was modestly stocked and, according to the assurances of the yakuza boss he'd been in contact with as well as his own surveillance, well off the radar of local law enforcement and anyone else who might cause trouble.

Mink wasn't about to delude himself as to what other purposes the house had likely served. The mainland gangs made even Midorijima's own yakuza look like children at play. This place had likely seen its fair share of use in drug and human trafficking, with the cops paid a reasonable sum to keep their noses out of any business that went down. It hardly made them any better than the man they were pursuing to support that kind of industry, but Mink's resolve was hardened enough over the years. He'd committed to do whatever was necessary to seek his revenge. The thin line that divided these men from Toue was clear enough in his mind.

Yet standing here, looking out into the mountain woods, with the rabble of his men putting their base of operations into order as the only interruption to the sounds of nature around him, he couldn't help but feel a pang of bitter nostalgia in his gut. The bird noticed, of course. Finished with its surveillance, it swooped down from above, settling easily on Mink's shoulder again.

"I observed nothing out of the ordinary," it said, "For the moment, it does appear that we have retained the element of surprise."

Mink acknowledged the report with a curt sound. His fingers curled around empty air at his side, his ancestral pipe was buried carefully in his luggage, he'd wanted to make sure the men had everything in order before he took time to tend to his own interests.

It seemed that the bird had other things in mind.

"Your thought and emotional indicators are highly abnormal at the moment, should I dismiss this concern?" it asked. Mink knew the question wasn't generated out of any sort of genuine concern. AllMates were only tools, they lacked the capacity for such emotions. He sighed, closing his eyes.

"Ignore it. It's only temporary."

"Understood. Although the distance that we've crossed today is relatively short, travel does always result in a certain degree of strain on the body. Ensuring that the men are well rested would contribute to the overall probability of success with the upcoming mission."

Mink snorted. "Are you making a habit of stating the obvious now?"

"What can be considered obvious depends upon one's current area of focus," the bird quipped. "I will always recommend what my processors determine to be the best course of action."

"Hn," Mink sighed again, turning away from the woods and back to the safe house at the bird's words.

Inside, he was pleased to see that the men were already at work trying to gain access to the bunker's security feeds. Takemoto was at his side as soon as he entered, a grin spread across his face.

"Mink-san, we're almost all the way up and running. The weapons inventory is done and it matches the list from our contact. Everything's accounted for."

Mink nodded, stepping over to where a few of his men were crouched over keyboards and monitor displays, lines of code and data flashing before their eyes. Takemoto followed in his shadow.

"And the other supplies?" Mink asked, his eyes never leaving the screens.

"There's enough food and water for four days, just what you asked for. Once we can break into the security feed we'll be ready to go at your command."

"Good." Mink turned, gaze sweeping across the room, meeting the eyes of the men who watched him, waiting eagerly for his next instructions. "I want us in as fast as we can get there, but don't get sloppy about it. Once we've cracked their system, there's no way they won't find us so we'll move quickly. I'm not dragging anyone's dead weight because they weren't rested and ready, understand?"

"You've got it, Mink-san!" Takemoto replied, echoed by the affirmatives of the men around him. Mink nodded once in acknowledgement before turning to retire to his room.

\---

The raid itself came together flawlessly, almost too flawlessly for Mink's liking. Within the day, his men managed to gain access to the bunker's the security feeds. When they pulled up the footage archive, they showed no regular patrols, no significant security presence coming or going from the bunker. Mink almost wondered if perhaps they'd guessed wrong and Toue had already made a clean escape to another location, but the network data remained consistent with their earlier findings. Even if it doesn't look it, there was some sort of activity within the bunker.

With their assurance that the system could be in black out within a moment's notice, Mink set the time for their raid. The next morning, before sunrise. They entered under a cover of darkness, in complete silence. There were no sounds of gunfire or fighting, the outer chambers of the bunker completely empty when they entered. Still, Mink insisted and they pressed on. Each room was checked, no hallway left unexplored.

It was only when they made their way to the bunker's center that they found anything other than empty rooms and empty hallways. Yet what they found was hardly what any of Mink's men had anticipated. 

At the center of the bunker was a well-decorated bedroom, occupied primarily by a large canopied bed at the corner of the room. The decor was monochromatic, blacks covering most of the walls with only the whites of the sheets for contrast. With the decorations what they were, he almost didn't notice the bed was occupied at first. It wasn't until Takemoto's shocked gasp confirmed his suspicions that he knew what he saw was true.

"Hey, there's someone there," Takemoto said, turning to look to Mink for instructions.

"Yeah."

The figure resting in the bed blended in perfectly with the room's lack of colors. Pale arms with skin that was nearly white standing out in stark contrast against black silken sheets. Black hair sat limp against the bright white cover of the pillow.

His eyes were closed, but Mink didn't need to see them to know who he was looking at.

"Keep your eyes off him. Don't let him look at you." Mink turned away, already moving back out the way he'd came. "I want him blindfolded and restrained."

"Mink-san?" The intonation in Takemoto's voice was hardly insubordination. Mink's trust in the man as one of the higher ranked members of Scratch meant that he wouldn't expect that sort of thing from him. Rather, it was more likely that Takemoto simply didn't understand the orders he'd been given. Here before them was a man, clearly sickly and weak, who Mink was asking to be treated like a prison, like an insurgent. Mink sighed. Of course Takemoto would want a reason.

He turned, looking back to the bed and the man who rested in it.

"Do you understand who that is?" he asked, not even sparing the thought to look to Takemoto as he addressed him.

"I don't think so, Mink-san..."

"Hah," Mink exhaled, rough. "That right there is Toue's 'son.'"

Across the room, the man's eyelashes fluttered, his eyes slowly opening. Yet instead of fixing their gaze on Mink, they merely looked upward, staring vacantly at the darkness of the ceiling above. Mink frowned. If he wasn't going to strike out at them, then just what was he planning?

For a moment the room was still. Mink waited to see if Toue's brat would make a move, Takemoto waited for Mink's instructions, and who would say what sort of thought was going through the brat's mind?

Yet when it was clear that the brat didn't plan to make a move, Mink chose to take action. He cleared the room in two steps, standing at the bedside and lowered one palm over the brat's face, covering his eyes.

"Do you understand why we're here?" he said, his voice firm and even.

Beneath his hand, the boy's head shifted, nodding. Mink pressed down and the motion stopped.

"Yes," the boy answered instead. There was a roughness to the edges of it, like the sort of thing that came after wearing down from crying or screaming too much.

"Then you know that it doesn't matter what happens to you, don't you?"

"I do." He didn't bother to move this time, holding completely still under Mink's grasp. There wasn't even a hint of resistance in the line of the boy's weak body. His arms still laid limp against the bedsheets, hands lax at his sides. So even Toue's own son was broken too, Mink thought to himself with a bitter sort of humor.

"We're holding position here," he said, turning deliver the order to Takemoto.

Before the other man had a chance to respond, it was the brat's soft voice that cut in to their conversation.

"He won't come here."

"Hah?" Mink asked, turning to glare back down at the boy, even if the force of the gesture was lost with his eyes covered.

"He won't come," the boy repeated, matter of fact. "He isn't here."

"Do you expect me to believe such a pitiful excuse for a bluff?" Mink snorted, curling his fingers against the boy's skull as a brief reminder of who held power here. The boy didn't react.

"It isn't a bluff," the boy said. "Not this part. I was the one who led you here."

Eyes narrowed, Mink swept his gaze over the prone form before him. The boy hardly seemed to have enough strength in his limbs to hold himself upright for long. What's more, there were no terminals in the room, or anywhere in the bunker for that matter. When his men had swept the rooms, they'd found only junk, a handful of supplies here and there, and this boy--

Mink's thoughts ground to a halt. If there was no way that anyone in the bunker could have connected to the network, then what was the source of the activity that had led him here? Who was the one who had been generating that telltale flag that drew him in like a moth to the flame?

He leaned over the boy, voice lowered and edged with steel.

"You were the one who sent the message."

"Yes."

His grip on the boy's head twitched, fingers pressing in a fraction harder.

"You were the one who sent the reports."

"Yes."

"And you had the footage of Toue's escape."

"That's right," the boy said. "Thank you for following the path I left for you."

Mink snorted. "You say that like falling into a trap is a kindness."

The boy was silent.

Anger roiled inside of Mink. He'd been tricked, drawn out by something as simple as a promise of Toue's capture. Although it was true that there was something inhuman about the way this brat had managed it, the fact remained that one of Toue's own had gotten the better of him. Had it been anyone other than a sickly child his revenge would have been left unfinished. Had Toue's son been given the chance to use the power that Mink had heard of in whispers and rumors, he would have been nothing more than a puppet.

The gods must have been watching his path to protect him from that end. He let out a slow breath, eager for a smoke to calm his nerves. Yet as his thoughts collected, he realized that the gods had done more than merely grant him protection. If the boy told the truth, if everything that had led him to this spot up until now had been by this brat's doing, then he had been given a tool much more powerful than the one he'd once hoped to find in Seragaki Aoba.

Leaning back, leaving his hand still over the brat's eyes, Mink turned back to Takemoto.

"We're moving out," he said, "And we're taking him with us."

"Him? But--Mink-san, do you think he's telling the truth?"

"It doesn't matter if he's lying or not. If Toue's coming back, he'll know we're here and hit us with enough power to grind us into dust. If he's gone, then we've just gained a hostage."

It was clear from the grin that spread over Takemoto's face that nothing more needed to be said. "Don't worry, Mink-san. We'll take care of it from here."


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Returning Sei to Scratch's headquarters, Mink makes certain that Toue's brat is aware of the situation he's in.

Mink wasted no time in returning his men to Midorijima with the brat in tow. It would be foolish to assume that there hadn't been someone else in that bunker simply to keep an eye on him, he was too frail to have survived for long on his own. As soon as any sort of alarm was raised, Mink wanted to be sure that he held the boy in a secure location. What's more, he certainly didn't want to overstay the welcome that had been offered by his connections on the mainland. The less reason he had to raise their ire, the better. Let them think of him as a small island gangster with delusions of grandeur. As long as they saw him as profitable and not a threat, as long as there was a reasonable price that could be assigned to their assistance, it didn't matter much to Mink.

The price assigned to smuggling a person across the water, for example, was something that Mink was perfectly willing to pay at this moment. The thought of whether Toue had used a similar method to transport the survivors of his tribe crossed his mind as he watched as the brat's bound and blindfolded form was passed off to the men who would be handling his transit. He pushed the thought from his mind without hesitation. Toue's son hardly shared a fate with his own people. He was a tool, nothing more.

Certainly, there was a chance that the brat could slip from his fingers here in the hand of the mainland criminals, but the price that Mink had paid and his silence on the boy's importance would do well enough to ensure that he was delivered safely.

In the end, the mainlanders were true to their word. It was only a day after his return when he got a call to his coil letting him know the cargo was ready for pick up. Knowing full well that it would stir rumors within Midorijima's criminal world for him to make an appearance at the docks himself, especially when Scratch wasn't known for dealing in trade, he sent Takemoto and a few other members of the bunker team out on the job.

He set out with them that evening, but split from the group quickly enough, making his rounds through Scratch's territory instead. The patrol was unnecessary, he knew, but with the turns of the past few days, he needed the time to himself.

What he knew of Toue's son came only from espionage and speculation. In the time he'd spent gathering information about the man's empire in an attempt to bring about his demise, Mink had come across plenty of supplemental information regarding the nature of the experiments Toue had undertaken. That was how he learned of the mind control that had been used on him and his fellow prisoners. It was also how he'd learned about the drug lights that had been gaining popularity in the clubs of Platinum Jail.

They were, of course, related. Both of them drawing their fundamentals from a highly classified research group that seemed to be at the heart of all of Toue's movements within the past two decades. Mink had never been able to crack into that data specifically. It was unnecessary to his goals, in the end, and highly secured regardless. Yet what he had gleaned from the side reports and references told him that someone close to Toue, and perhaps even Toue himself, possessed the same sort of mind altering powers that the lights and prison experiments had tried to replicate. References to eyes and ocular fluids were prevalent in the reports, as well as a few snatches that lauded the power of the lights in comparison to their "natural occurrence."

Mink knew full well that no such power existed naturally, that it would only be through Toue's twisted work that something like that could have been created. It was the reason for the man's misguided obsession with his own tribe's people, after all. Yet to refer to this power as having a natural antecedent implied that somehow his experiments had met with some degree of success. Something had been created with the power to manipulate minds using its eyes alone.

He'd recognized the boy only from surveillance footage grabbed at some of Toue's more private galas. Every so often, usually in the company of only a few of his most trusted investors and advisors, Toue would bring the dark haired boy out, cheerfully introducing him as a child who had been like a son to him, while in the same breath calling the child the pride of his accomplishments thus far.

The words had always felt strange to Mink. What pride did Toue have save for the pride he put in his own ability to manipulate the world around him? There were no birth records indicating that a child had ever been born to Toue himself, which made the boy himself an enigma.

If he was an artificial creation, something born out of Toue's labs, it would make sense for the boy to have the powers that Toue's research referenced. If the brat was his trump card, even someone as twisted as Toue would understand the importance of keeping him close. What better way to avoid suspicion than by calling the boy his own child?

Yet the fact that the boy had been left behind, that he seemed to have knowledge of Toue's whereabouts as well as Mink's plan to bring about his death, meant either that Toue had divided his resources to avoid another devastating blow like Oval Tower or that he'd abandoned the hope and pride that he himself claimed the boy represented.

But if the hints that he'd been given, if even Shirogane's information had been part of the brat's own plots, it meant one thing clearly. He was back to square one in his hopes of finding Toue himself.

Heaving a sigh, Mink stopped amidst some rubble in the road from the abandoned warehouses he wandered through. The bird, who had been silent at his shoulder this whole time, cocked its head in question.

"Your thoughts are moving at a considerably accelerated rate."

"Yeah."

"This outcome does represent a considerable setback, doesn't it?"

"Hn," he sighed again, turning to head back to the headquarters, the men should be back by now.

"Yet you'll press forward regardless. That seems to be your way."

"My work isn't done yet," Mink said simply. "It isn't time for me to rest."

"Quite true. You'll use this boy as well?"

"Yeah," Mink said. His steps slowed. It had almost sounded like there was something akin to concern in the bird's voice. He knew full well that he hadn't programmed those sort of parameters into the AllMate's personality matrix.

"Perhaps he will prove useful, then," the bird said, feathers ruffling slightly as he settled against Mink's shoulder more fully. "My sensors indicate there is something strange about his physical composition."

"What do you mean?"

"As it exists beyond the parameters of what I'm equipped to monitor, it's difficult to describe. However, it seems to be a sort of electromagnetic force--a network hub, perhaps--as an AllMate, it feels somewhat comforting."

"A network hub..."

"I'm sorry if my description for it seems nonsensical. It is somewhat beyond my processing capabilities to render it properly."

Mink let out a noncommittal sound, ignoring the bird's concern. "We'll see what it is soon enough."

"So we shall," the bird said.

When Mink returned to his room, he saw that his men had already carried out his instructions. There, bound and blindfolded, lying prone in the center of his bed was Toue's brat. Outside of the bleak decorations of the bunker they'd found him in, his skin didn't look any less pale. Even still, Mink could see the faint outlines of scars along the inside of his arms where his sleeves had been pushed up to accommodate his bindings. Track marks. There was no doubt left in Mink's mind now that the boy had been an experimental subject. Apparently the clout of being considered Toue's family hardly shielded him from any of the man's atrocities. Mink's stomach twisted in revulsion at the thought, even though it was hardly unprecedented for a man like Toue.

Stepping into the room with heavy footfalls, he watched boy's body for any sort of reaction. Yet even when the heavy metal door slid shut behind him with an echoing clang, the body in front of him gave no movement other than the even rise and fall of the boy's chest. His breathing wasn't slow enough for sleep. He was conscious. Yet conscious or not, he wasn't afraid.

Mink waved the bird off of his shoulder, letting the AllMate settled at his usual perch on the back of Mink's chair. Twisting his pipe in his fingers, he drew it up to his lips, taking a slow drag as he stepped to the edge of the bed, looking down on the body in front of him.

"You're awake," he said. It wasn't a question.

The boy nodded his head once. "I am," he answered in a quiet voice.

"Do you know where you are?"

"I do," the boy said. "This is Scratch's headquarters."

"Hah," Mink sighed. "Then you know who I am."

"Yes." His head turned, the black of his blindfold turning to face Mink, as though the closed eyes beneath it were staring up at him. "Scratch's head, Mink."

"That's right. And you're the brat that Toue calls his son."

"I am. He called me Sei."

"I don't care what he called you," Mink said, reaching forward to grab a fistfull of the boy's shirt, hauling him up off the bed with one hand. "You're Scratch's captive, which means that you're my captive. You'll answer my questions, obey my orders, and do as I say and if you behave then I'll let you live."

The words hardly seemed to have the usual effect on Sei. Where most men would have cowered or protested, begged for mercy or thrown themselves at his feet promising subservience, Sei only hung in his grip. The blank line of the blindfold was still fixed on Mink's gaze, the line of Sei's lips a narrow parallel beneath it. When Mink had finished, they pursed together, deepening the line between them.

"That's very kind of you, but I don't want that sort of thing."

"Hah?" At once Mink was grateful that the boy couldn't see the perplexed expression drawn across his face. He fixed it to a careful scowl within a moment, drawing Sei further off the bed. "I don't have time for your games, brat."

"It isn't a game," Sei said, his tone was so light it was almost conversational. Something about it left a deeply unsettling feeling beneath Mink's skin. "I don't need you to leave me alive."

That gave Mink pause for a moment. He looked the boy up and down, taking in his pale skin, his thin frame. Closer up, he could see the marks on Sei's neck that accompanied the marks on his arms. The body he held in his hand was weak, frail, and barely alive as it was.

Frowning, he narrowed his eyes and asked, "Do you understand what you're asking for?"

"I do," Sei answered. "I want you to kill me."

"I won't be granting that request," Mink said without hesitation, tossing Sei back down to the bed. It creaked under his weight as he fell limp against the mattress. Sei made no sound.

"You know well enough how I found you. You drew me in. Did you think that I wouldn't be aware of how you pulled off a feat like that? I'm guessing that you're the one who tipped off Shirogane with the location of Toue's bunkers."

Sei was quite before he answered with a faint nod against the sheets of Mink's bed. "That's right."

"And you would know just how my men would go about figuring out which one was worth our time and effort, wouldn't you?"

"Yes."

"But you didn't cover your tracks." Mink stepped back, reaching out to his chair and turning it so he could sit before the bed, his chains rattling with the motion. Sei remained motionless. "In that entire bunker, there wasn't a single terminal that could have generated the sort of activity that we saw. You knew that as well, didn't you?"

That question seemed to stir something in Sei. It was only the slightest shift of his shoulders, a twitch of his lips pursing together in a flat line. The motion only lasted a moment, but it didn't escape Mink's eyes.

"I knew that."

"Because you're the one who generated that activity," Mink said with a demanding confidence that masked his doubts at just how Toue's sickly experiment of a son had managed such a thing. Yet he'd seen stranger things happen on the island of Midorijima, and he had little reason to suspect that Sei would call his bluff.

The nod from the bed a moment later confirmed his suspicions. "That was me."

"Hn," Mink leaned back in his chair. "He's put chips in our bodies to transmit data across a short ranged network to our AllMates, now he's figured out how to give that power to a human being."

"It isn't quite like that."

"It doesn't matter. You've already shown me that you've got access to Platinum Jail's security feeds, to Toue's private files, and to a network connection housed in nothing except for your own flesh and blood. In other words, you have everything I need in order to find him."

Sei was silent, motionless once more. Mink watched him, his gaze sharp, looking for any sign of emotion on the boy's pale features. There was nothing there. He really was an empty husk of a person.

At length, Sei spoke. "You're set on him."

"Toue is my objective. You know that much."

"Mhm." Sei's voice seemed quieter than usual, almost resigned. "You want to use me."

"I don't make a habit of carrying around dead weight."

"You don't seem that type, no." Silence stretched between them before Sei's lips moved again, forming words with a deliberate motion that betrayed the thought he put behind him. "If I do as you say, will you grant my wish?"

"If you're obedient, it doesn't matter what happens once Toue's gone. Throw yourself off a bridge for all I care. Your death is yours to deal with."

"That's not what I'm asking," Sei said. He shifting on the bed, struggling as he pulled himself into a sitting position, the line of his blindfold fixed on where Mink sat before him. His 'gaze' dropped after a moment, a submissive gesture. "I want you to kill me. To destroy this body and release me."

"So even Toue's brat knows how to beg?" he snorted, eyes narrowed as he took in Sei's appearance before him. An experiment, born from Toue's research and subjected to the very same research for what was likely a better part of his life. In what he'd seen, there was no will in the boy, nothing but underhanded deceit and submission. He was certainly alive, drawing air and pumping blood before Mink, but at that moment, Mink wondered if he could truly consider the boy to be living.

What he was asking was hardly a cruelty. In Mink's eyes, it almost seemed a kindness. It would just be undoing another sin upon the world that Toue had committed.

"That's not quite it..." Sei said, tilting his head slightly in a way that made Mink wonder if he could feel the gaze upon him. "What I'd like is an agreement."

Mink brought his pipe to his lips with a sigh, drawing in a long drag before exhaling. "You'll help me find Toue if I can promise you your end."

"That's right."

Mink didn't like the idea of soiling his hands with anything more than Toue's demise. Everything up to this point had only been for that purpose. Yet if he could offer a tortured soul some solace before he found his own rest, perhaps the gods wouldn't judge him so harshly.

"All right," he said, rising from his chair. "You've got an agreement."


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sei proves his use to Scratch. When he questions how Mink's treated him, it draws Mink's attention to how Sei has suffered at the hands of Toue.

In many ways, Sei was a perfect tool.

By Mink's orders, he was never seen away from Mink's side. The cuffs on his hands and the blindfold remained, more as a symbolic gesture than anything else. Sei had given Mink his word that he wouldn't use his powers on any of the members of Scratch or try to escape. Mink trusted him in this, or rather trusted in the learned helplessness that the boy exhibited, but the gesture of it was important. Toue's remnants were his to use now. Sei was a hostage as well as a pawn.

The restraints were only removed when he was alone with Mink. He at least allowed the brat the chance to bathe, to feed himself. Their meals were shared in tense silence in Mink's small room. Sei slept curled on a small cot at the foot of Mink's bed. He never complained of the soreness of his joints, though Mink saw it in the deliberate slowness of his motions. He never winced as Mink refastened the cuffs over his wrists, though Mink could see where the skin was cracking and red.

At work, Sei was nothing if not efficient and relentless. The first day that Mink had brought him out to the array of monitors and towers where Scratch had made their discovery of his hiding place, Mink wondered at what would happen. They had an agreement, but it very well could have been something made of Sei's desperation, his will to see his wish fulfilled. That spoke nothing to how quickly the boy intended on helping him locate Toue and bringing him down.

Yet when he and his men stood, watching Sei where he knelt between the displays, his skin looking all the more sickly in the glow that they cast off, Sei proved those doubts quite wrong. With the slightest tilt of his head, several more displays pulled up, out of midair, numbers and data flying across their screens, so quickly that even Mink's eyes couldn't follow them. Asegawa, who had a monitor of Scratch's own network activity pulled up just to ensure that Sei didn't send out any distress signals, stared with wide eyed wonder at the activity recorded across his screen.

"Hey, Mink-san--this guy's--he's--"

"Spit it out," Mink said, eyes narrowed and fixed on Sei.

"He's insane! He's cracked through the mainland's security force database like it was nothing. He's going for--the hell is that--is that Interpol? He's not even moving! How's he pulling this shit off?!"

Mink grunted, stepping forward to catch Sei's shoulder in a firm grip. The boy's body was nearly limp under his touch. "Don't overdo it, brat," he said, voice low with warning.

"Yes..." Sei answered, his voice sounding as faint and faraway as the apparent reach of the routes his data was following with seemingly nothing more than the force of his own mind.

A moment later, several screens popped up in quick success as a quiet sigh slipped from Sei's lips. If Mink hadn't been standing right next to the brat, he doubted he would have heard it. Some of the tension seemed to return to the skin under Mink's hand. He made note of it before shifting his attention to the screens before him.

It was all laid out quite clearly. Scattered to one side were messages, email correspondence, the short, abbreviated communication of text messages. All of them were between Toue and a man called Takahashi, presumably his assistant. Right there before him was Toue's plan for retreat following the tower's collapse, as plain as his eyes could see. In the center was a map, zoomed to focus on a small wooded area, a smaller panel superimposed in front of it showed the location to be in a remote area of Switzerland. Finally, to the right of that was the security. Blueprints, security schedules, feeds to cameras. All of it showed him the activity in the bunker that Sei had located. There, in the center of the feeds, Mink watched as Toue strode casually down a well-lit hallway, his assistant--Takahashi--following a step or two behind him.

"What the hell..." the voice was Yuzawa's, dumbfounded.

"Holy shit," Takemoto said. "This kid really did it!"

"Asegawa," Mink said, his eyes never leaving the security feed. "Did he leave a trail?"

"Ah--oh--right, um--" the man stuttered, fumbling with his coil as he tried to check the network routes that Sei had established before Sei's quiet voice silenced him.

"They won't find us."

"Hm?" Mink raised an eyebrow, a gesture that Sei wouldn't see, as he tilted his head down towards the brat. "Prove it."

"All right." The words were a sigh from Sei's lips, his body lax under Mink's touch again before several more screens pulled up, showing the trace route of the points of connection he'd established to Toue's security.

Mink's eyes panned over jumps and IP data, scanning the lines until he was sufficiently satisfied that the brat seemed to have bounced them across so many proxies, disguising their signal as coming from within Toue's own private network in the end, that it would take an expert with a keen eye to find them out and trace the signal back to Scratch. Toue would be watching, he knew, but if they moved quickly enough they wouldn't be found.

"Well--it's right there," Asegawa muttered, his wounded pride evident in his voice.

Mink ignored it, grabbing Sei's shoulder and hauling him up as he turned back to face his men.

"That's enough for today. Yuzawa, Takemoto. You know what to do."

"This time we've really got him," Takemoto said, his voice pitched in excitement.

"Let's show that bastard he can't escape from Scratch that easily," Yuzawa piped in, a wide grin across his face.

Mink grunted in assent, pushing past the two of them as he and Sei made their way back to his room.

Sei followed him, like a shadow, until the door to his room was closed firmly behind them. What followed was what was quickly becoming a habitual exchange between the two of them. Sei waited in the center of the room, bound hands held forward, while Mink secured the door's lock. Tucking the key into his pocket, Mink turned, carefully removing Sei's cuffs and allowing the boy to undo the blindfold around his eyes.

Even though only a few days had passed, Mink could already see the chafing against Sei's wrists, his pale skin stained bright red. They'd had to make due with his restraints, using old police cuffs that were hardly designed for comfort. Mink's own manacles were slightly different, smooth on the inside and beveled at the edges he could leave them on as long as he needed to for the show of power that they afforded him.

For Sei however, it was a different story. Mink's eyes followed those red lines against his skin as his hands raised, pulling at the knotted cloth of the blindfold. He knew how to make a salve that would relieve the rash, keep the wounds clean, and allow the skin to heal. He kept a small tin of it tucked away with his books and a few other supplies, the last remnants of his clan's knowledge. He knew there wasn't any reason to show Sei cruelty. The boy had already given him everything he'd asked for without question. He was already trained and conditioned by abuse and violence, there was no need for Mink to add to it. All he wanted was death.

With a sigh, Mink tore his eyes away as the blindfold dropped. Pushing past Sei, he drew his pipe out from inside his jacket and sat before his altar, reaching for the tin of herbs to fill the bowl again.

He felt Sei's eyes on his back, following his steps, but heard nothing. He dug at the burnt fragments of leaves stuck to the sides of his pipe's bowl, blowing at the mouthpiece to clear them out. Behind him, Sei finally moved, stepping away to the cot at the foot of the bed where he seated himself, silent.

With a flutter of wings, the bird moved from Mink's shoulder to sit near Sei. It was just as the AllMate had said, there seemed to be some sort of magnetism that drew him to the boy, likely a result of the power that Mink used him for now. The first time the bird had flown to Sei to settle on his knee, Mink had given both of them a stern look but said nothing. It was only a machine. Let it do whatever its program urged it to do as long as it performed its duties.

Sei, strangely enough, seemed to enjoy the bird's presence. On more than one occasion the two of them had struck up a conversation, chatting idly in a way that Mink thought was hardly befitting of a captive. Yet as he'd watched the way that Sei's eyes had softened when his fingers brushed through the bird's artificial feathers, he thought it best to let them be. There was no need for cruelty, after all.

Today, the two were silent as Mink pressed leaves into the bowl of his pipe. It wasn't until he'd struck a match and drew a long pull to light them that he heard Sei speak up.

"You trust me, don't you?"

"Hah?" Mink exhaled, turning with one arm braced on his chair to look down at the boy. "What are you talking about?"

Sei's hands were buried in the contour feathers on the bird's chest, but his eyes were fixed on Mink. "Toue's location," he said. "You didn't ask them to confirm it, only to make sure that we wouldn't be found."

"Unless you can pull footage like what you showed us out of thin air, there's no doubt that you've found him."

"It isn't difficult," Sei said, his lips curling in a slight smile. "I've done it before."

Mink's eyes narrowed. He snorted through his nose, a rough sound. "If that's what you did, then you wouldn't draw attention to it."

"No, you're right," Sei confirmed, nodding. "It isn't that I've betrayed you, or led you astray."

"Then what is it?" Mink asked, standing just enough to turn the back of his chair around so he could sit facing Sei, arms resting against his legs in a crouch. He arched one eyebrow, fixing the boy with an impatient glare. Sei only smiled in reply.

"I wasn't expecting to be trusted."

"Hn," Mink shook his head. "Is that all?"

"That's all."

Silent, Mink stared down at the boy. Sei's fingers were still against the bird's feathers. After only a moment his gaze dropped, submissive under Mink's careful scrutiny. Even though they had only spent a few days together, it didn't seem like the brat to ask a question like that. Until that moment, he had obeyed every order, followed every command without hesitation or complaint. There was something that had changed.

It was like a thread, hanging at the edges of a hole in fabric that was already unraveled and undone. Pulling at it roughly would only do more damage, but with skill and care it could be woven back and mended. It would never be the same as something freshly made, undamaged, but it would be just as strong, in the end. Like freshly dyed cloth in a worn tapestry, it could grant a chance at new life.

Mink sighed, shaking the thought from his head. Just what was it that he was seeing in Toue's brat? The teachings that had been passed down through his family through the years were of healing and mending, but the task before him was a far cry from any of his father's lessons. There was no place for such kindness here.

"I trust every man under this roof. Loyalty doesn't come from deceit. Even a tool like you can be trusted to perform his duties."

"People can still betray one another," Sei said. "Toue used me, but I was the one who destroyed Oval Tower."

Mink arched an eyebrow at the revelation, though it was hardly surprising, given what he had seen of Sei's abilities.

"If you're planning on turning traitor, you're doing a poor job of it."

"I'm not," Sei said again. "We have an agreement."

"Yeah," Mink acknowledged, sitting up a little straighter, his predatory posture relaxing somewhat.

"I won't break that agreement."

Mink made a quiet sound of assent, his eyes still fixed on Sei, studying the line of his shoulders, the fall of his dark hair that partially obscured his face with the way his head was bowed.

As the silence stretched on, Sei's posture shifted, his head tilting upward, only enough so that he could look up to Mink through the line of his bangs.

"You'll destroy me," Sei said, with a quiet determination.

"That's what I said."

"That's right."

Mink sighed, arms resting on his thighs as he leaned back in his chair. "You're rather fixated on death for someone who's hardly lived."

That made Sei pause, the boy's head lifting more, his brows knitting together. "What do you mean..."

"Do you think I'm unaware of what sort of things Toue's experiments entailed?" Mink asked with a snort. "You're the one who sent me those files. You've gone digging in my past."

"I did. I thought that you should know."

"You wanted to lure me out."

"That as well," Sei admitted, nodding slightly.

Mink grunted. "Being Toue's pride and joy might have spared you from some of that, but I've seen your body. You're damaged. He wanted your power in the same way he wanted whatever magic he thought my people were capable of working."

Sei paused a moment, his hand dropping from the bird's feathers, falling to rest at his side. "My power was a great achievement," he said, his mouth slowly moving as his mind drew on words that had been spoken to him time and time again. "In order to bring peace to the world, they needed to understand it. They needed to know how to recreate it, to make it their own."

"In other words," Mink cut in, voice rough, "you were a tool. You weren't even human in their eyes."

"They treated me kindly, at times," Sei said in quiet protest.

"If you've got a delicate and valuable tool, you don't just treat it roughly," Mink said, lips curling in a mocking grin. "But in the end it's still a tool."

Sei's gaze dropped again, fixing on a point on the floor, his shoulders curling slightly, hunched around him. "It may be," he said. "If you see it that way, I can't say if you're right or wrong, it's your judgement. But being someone's tool, someone's son, someone's precious thing...whichever one it as, it was still my life."

"Do you always hold the judgement of others higher than your own?" Mink asked, the words escaping his mouth before he could even put thought to them. He pursed his lips a moment later, not wanting Sei to see that he'd spoken impulsively, but trying to rein himself in regardless. There was no end to be served by making the brat realize the extent of the damage wrought by Toue's treatment.

Sei seemed to notice. He looked back at Mink now, his head tilted slightly, curious. He spoke slowly, his voice even, "I can't speak for other people, for their experiences."

Mink sighed, fingers twitching at his thigh. He only smoked as a matter of ritual and intimidation, but all the same this conversation was making him crave it. "Then speak for yourself, brat."

Sei's eyebrows narrowed, his fingers curling slightly where they rested against the tattered blanket that lay over his cot. There was something different in his dark eyes, a different kind of light and depth that Mink hadn't seen there before.

Sei opened his mouth, but no words came out. He closed it a moment later, curling on himself in defeat.

"What I've experienced is my life," he managed at last, the words pushing slowly from his lips. 

Mink could hear the strain at the edges of his syllable. Sei wasn't used to speaking like this. He wasn't used to the idea of someone who trusted him, someone who wanted to hear his own voice rather than evasive half-answers veiled in submissive avoidance.

The picture of Toue's abuse was clearer now. The boy before him had a power that Toue craved, and because of it he'd been given no power in his own right. Mink was just another user who would take him as a tool until his task was complete, and then discard him. The only difference was that, in Sei's eyes, this end was one that he had chosen by his own will.

Mink's stomach turned, an unfamiliar weight catching in his throat. He'd agreed to end Sei's life, as a kindness, as an exchange, but he knew that needless slaughter wasn't what his father had taught him. If there was a way to spare life, to protect one of the creations of the gods, it was their task to do so.

In his years, he'd never seen anything more in need of mending than the broken boy on the floor before him.

"If that's your life, then it's up to your judgement what you do with that," Mink muttered, under his breath, as he turned his chair again to face the altar in the corner.

He felt Sei's gaze on his back, a quiet pressure as he lit a match to begin his prayers for the day.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the path laid before them, Mink and Sei take steps toward preparing for the inevitable confrontation.

After the first raid, Scratch was already in a state of readiness for striking on Toue's real hideout. However, an operation in another country wasn't as simple as a short trip to the mainland. The preparations would still take a few weeks, securing travel and fake identities that would hold up to the scrutiny of foreign immigration offices.

Sei's primary use was exhausted, but Mink still insisted on his presence. He'd tasked the boy with ensuring that their taps into Toue's security system remained untraced, and he was certain that Sei would prove useful in the strike against Toue himself, as a hostage if nothing else. His earlier display, however, seemed to have earned him a sort of cautious respect from Scratch and its members. While the men had previously regarded the brat with a sense of disdain and contempt, seeing him as a representation of Toue himself and all that the man had accomplished, that had changed now. 

Among Asegawa and his group, whenever a particularly difficult task arose, the running joke now was to turn to Sei with a jab of "Why don't you just take care of it for us, Toue boy?"

Sei seemed quite content to play along, graciously offering a smile and a quip of "If it's Mink's orders."

The men got a laugh out of that. The juxtaposition of Toue's tool, his own son, joining the cause of his undoing was certainly not lost on them. Sei's displays of loyalty, regardless of what motivated them, were encouraging in their own rights. Morale remained high. It was more than what Mink could have asked for.

Yet since the conversation he'd shared with Sei in his room on the night of their discovery, there was a strange sort of weight that seemed to bear down on the two of them when they were alone. He felt Sei's gaze on him more often, following him in the motions of his nightly prayers, in his reading, even as he'd eat his meals and prepare for bed. He made no comment on it. If the brat had something he wanted to say, he'd say it, but it stood in a stark contrast to the boy he'd brought in at first, a boy who never looked on in anything but submission and deference.

Sei's words also came more easily, his conversations with the bird giving way to conversations with Mink himself.

"You're very respectful of them," he said one night, settled onto his cot, watching as Mink sat at the edge of the bed, pulling his boots off for the night.

"Hah?" Mink turned, favoring the boy with one eyebrow arched in question.

"Your men," Sei explained. He had his knees drawn to his chest as always, arms resting across them, his gaze fixed on Mink. "They're all very loyal to you. They recognize your power and authority, but you're not unkind to them."

"Where the hell did that come from?" Mink snorted. It was true that during Sei's stay there had been no acts of insubordination, no need for discipline, but he imagined that his earlier declaration had influenced that more than anything.

"I've been paying attention," Sei said. "It's the way you speak to them, the way they speak to you. You could ask more of them, but you don't. You could push them past their limits, but you never do. You know what they're capable of, and you respect it."

"I'm not looking to have a mutiny on my hands," Mink said, his tone flat.

"There's other ways to enforce obedience," Sei replied. "I know that."

Mink sighed, setting his boots aside as he turned to face the boy. "Why does the way I treat my men matter to you?"

"It's something unexpected," Sei said. His mouth was set in a thin line. This wasn't a mockery or a taunt, only an observation.

Mink studied that gaze, eyes narrowed, before letting out a rough snort.

"Loyalty isn't something you can force. No one here is here because he's trapped. Your old man could've stood to learn a thing or two about the importance of respecting people's choices."

Sei's eyes fell, looking down towards where his wrists lay limply crossed over his knees, red against white against black. "He always thought that his choices were for the best," he said, his voice lacking the conviction of his earlier question.

Mink turned away, his chains clanking as he drew himself up into bed.

"Men will only follow a man who drags them along for so long. My word is law, but it's the law they've chosen. Disrespecting that choice means destroying the foundation that Scratch is built on. I'm not interested in seeing what I've built tumble to the ground like Toue's tower."

Mink didn't wait for a reply before he sat up, tugging at the light cord to plunge the room into darkness. It was only after he settled back against his bed, arms crossed over his chest, head against the pillow, that he heard the shifting of fabric from Sei's cot and a quiet exhale.

"So that's how it is." Sei said, quietly, and then said no more.

-

"What do you ask your gods for?" the question came one night after Mink's prayers, as he sat at the altar, tapping out the ash from the bowl of his pipe.

He turned at the sound of Sei's voice, raising one eyebrow and regarding him with an incredulous gaze.

"What makes you think that it's your business to know that?"

"Nothing," Sei said. He was in the same position as always, almost like a totem, arms crossed, dark eyes staring intently at Mink. "It isn't my right to know, if you won't answer. I've only asked."

"Asking presumes an answer," Mink said with a snort. "No one asks a question expecting silence. You're trying to hide what you want."

Sei paused a moment, lips pursed, before he lowered his gaze.

"I don't think it's my business to know," he said at length. "It just seemed strange to me."

"Strange?"

A nod. Sei lifted his head again to meet Mink's eyes. "Toue thought highly of the gods, in his own way. He thought of life as nothing more than a game played by fate, that if he succeeded, then surely the world he created would be what the gods would have wanted."

"Are you trying to compare me to your old man?" Mink asked, eyes narrowed.

"No," Sei said. "That's not it. I know that what you believe is different. Toue never offered prayers or supplications. He thought of his creations and his work as offering enough."

"Conceited," Mink snorted under his breath.

"Some would say that," Sei agreed without missing a beat. "I always thought that it seemed rather sad."

Mink leveled a curious stare on Sei at the statement. It was the closest thing he'd heard to a judgement from the boy since he'd brought him in. Sei smiled slightly under the scrutiny, an empty expression.

"He didn't see much of the world around him. He's probably still only seeing the world in terms of the game playing in his mind."

"In other words, he didn't see you."

"He did, but he didn't." The empty smile fell from Sei's face. "I had a brother who died shortly after we were born. Toue always wondered at what he could have accomplished if my brother had shared my powers, if my brother had lived."

For a moment, Mink saw something nearly familiar in the line of Sei's jaw. His mind drew him back to amber eyes bright with a defiant energy. The scent of death that defined that boy with hair as blue as the sky. Sei was nothing like him.

Sei's eyes were dark and lost. A scent of life clung to him, but not vibrance that accompanied life at its peak. This was a scent of life drawn out for too long, of life struggling at the cusp of death. It was rotten and sickly. 

Still, Sei had his eyes. Aoba had his voice. Mink wasn't an idiot. He saw the connection drawn between the two of them clearly. He knew that Sei must have seen it as well. It was ridiculous to think that the brat who'd hacked into his Coil with information from Toue's personal security feeds couldn't do something as simple as locate a presumably missing person. It didn't matter to him that Sei had chosen to seek death instead of a family that would have treated him with care and love. They had an agreement.

"I'm not interested in what Toue thought of you," was all that Mink said. "Remember that you're here to put an end to him."

"I know that," Sei said.

Mink let out a low sigh, pushing himself up from his chair. "It's strange to you because you've never seen someone pray properly," he said, his voice sounding heavy to his own ears. "Toue didn't revere the gods, he taunted them. He asked for their punishment and when it wasn't delivered he took that as justification. That isn't faith."

"It's conceit?" Sei asked, borrowing Mink's earlier words.

"The gods didn't create the world and grant us life in the name of some twisted game," Mink explained as he set his pipe away. He could feel Sei's gaze on his back, following him around the room. "They're gifts. Something passed to us from the gods themselves."

He turned as he came to the edge of the bed, staring down at where Sei rested on his cot on the floor. Sei remained silent, watching him, waiting to see if he had more to say.

Mink pursed his lips. He didn't know what had driven him to say that much. He wasn't a talkative person by nature, but there was something in the look of Sei's eyes, in the scent that filled his room, that made him want to right at least some of the wrongs that laid before him.

Silence stretched between them for a moment longer before Mink spoke.

"What would you ask the gods for?" he said simply, returning Sei's question to him.

Sei's eyes lowered, his fingers curling lightly, tips pressed to the palms of his hands.

"I wouldn't know," he said. "I've never believed in that sort of thing."

-

"We leave in three days," Mink said one night after they had returned to his room. He undid Sei's handcuffs and let them fall to the ground. "You'll stay in here until then."

Sei nodded quietly, reaching up to undo the blindfold. "You haven't told your men yet."

"They'll hear tomorrow. They know it's coming soon."

Sei frowned at him, his brows creased as his lips drew down in question. "Why are you telling me first?"

"Because you need more preparation," Mink said. He jerked his chin at the bed roughly. "Sit."

Sei's eyes lingered on him for a moment, his mouth still set in a thin line, jaw tight. For a tense moment, Mink almost wondered if the brat was going to defy him now, when he sat at the cusp of bringing his plans to fruition, but the tension faded as Sei turned, obediently sitting at the edge of Mink's bed.

Mink let out a breath he didn't realize he'd held in and turned to mask the sound. He stepped toward his bookshelf without another word, rummaging through some smaller wooden boxes and containers before he found what he was looking for. Turning back to Sei, he crossed the space between them with two strides and knelt before the boy's legs.

Sei's confusion only seemed to deepen as he did. The boy had his hands folded together in his lap, his back straight and his shoulder set back. The red of the welts raised by his handcuffs were the only splash of color against his otherwise ghost-like appearance. They stood out, level with Mink's eyes, drawing his attention like the wounds that they were.

He stared at them only for a moment before lifting his gaze to meet Sei's, holding one hand out as the other set the tin he'd retrieved from his shelf at his side.

"Left hand," he said and Sei complied.

Mink pried the tin open one handed. The scent of herbs and flowers wafted up into the room, mingling with the sharp spice of Mink's scent and the sickly undercurrent of Sei's. It made for a strange combination. Mink snorted and tried not to pay too much mind to it. He gathered some of the salve in on his fingertips, cradling Sei's left hand in his palm and reach up to spread it carefully over the wounds inflicted on his hands.

Sei watched, silent. His hand was still in Mink's, his eyes fixed on the motion of Mink's fingers, not even flinching when they moved across the places where the cuffs had split Sei's skin open and left it raw and bleeding. Only after Mink had covered nearly the entire inside of his wrist did he speak.

"Why are you..." he said, his voice trailing off, words swallowed back into his throat.

"Wounds like these attract attention," Mink said, his voice blunt and even. "You're coming with us. I can't have you blowing our cover. If it looks like you've been cuffed up, someone's going to ask questions."

"I could lie to them," Sei answered quietly, his gaze still fixed on where Mink's fingers were on his wrist, dark skin against angry red.

"A lie's not going to stop them from running a check on your documents and background. We've got enough to slip through unnoticed, not enough to hold up to something like Interpol's scrutiny," Mink snorted.

"I could lie to them as well," Sei said simply.

"Hah?" Mink glanced up, quirking an eyebrow at him.

"To Interpol. To their systems. I won't be caught."

Mink frowned at him, turning his hand over, working to cover the back of his wrist as well. "And the people in the airport? The security guards working the gate? You'd lie and use your power on every person who asks a question?"

Sei was quiet a moment longer before he replied. "If that's what you wanted."

"If it isn't obvious to you, I've made up my mind." Mink released Sei's left hand, holding his hand out for the right.

Instead of acquiescing, Sei drew his hand back, fixing Mink with his dark eyed gaze.

"This is kindness."

"It's a necessity," Mink said flatly. "Didn't I just tell you the reasons?"

"You did," Sei said with a slight nod. "But this isn't the only way."

"That sounds like insubordination." Mink hefted his hand in the air with the words, impatient. Sei lowered his head and extended his right hand to rest in Mink's open palm.

Something twisted in Mink's gut. It was only slight, barely noticeable to anyone who didn't know watch to watch for, but Sei had been changing over the time he'd spent in Scratch's quarters. 

The physical changes were the most notable. His hair had grown out a little longer, brushing against the tops of his shoulders, just barely. It shone with a different sort of light as well, even under the fluorescent bulbs that lit the underground lair. A malnourished gang wouldn't win any fights, so Mink always saw to seeing his men well fed, Sei included. The change in diet had started to bring more weight to his bones, color to his cheeks as well.

The changes to his mind were different, more subtle. It was more than just the questions that he dared to ask in the silence of the room they shared together. Mink had seen it in the way his head turned and followed the conversation of Scratch's members around him. Where he had once been an empty doll, speaking only on Mink's command, Mink could see the desire to speak up, to interact, in the slight motions of his lips and brows. Even though he craved death, there was something that was starting to truly live inside of Sei.

He knew well enough that even if he hadn't set out to nurture it, by failing to grant Sei's wish, by forcing him to live on when he'd asked for death, he had allowed that part of Sei to grow. With a soft sigh, Mink set to work on spreading the salve over the wounds on Sei's right hand.

It wasn't kindness that he was showing Sei now. The injuries had never been necessary in the first place, neither for coercion or as a demonstration. It was only an unfortunate circumstance of the supplies they had available. As he reached for the gauze resting at his side to wind it about Sei's wrists, white against pale skin, he knew well enough that even if it wasn't kindness, what he was doing was an act of healing.

Yet while his hands healed, his words tore open the wounds inflicted deeper in Sei's mind. He had no stake in Sei's choices, in whether the brat wanted to live or die. But if something could heal then, perhaps, Mink could go to his death with the blood of one fewer life on his hands.


	9. Chapter 9

The flight passed without incident. Sei's wrists were mostly healed by that time, only a few scabs and a light pink tone to his skin as evidence of the injuries he'd suffered. Those were easily covered by the long sleeved shirt that Mink grabbed for him.

Sei's seat on the plane was at the window, with Mink occupying the center seat in the aisle. He rose when Sei rose, accompanied him to the restroom when he needed it, and stood like a sentry outside the doors. It wasn't because he suspected that Sei would make an attempt to escape, they both knew, but rather it was a demonstration, a display. Those sort of things were important in their own right.

Upon landing, they found a train out of the airport and into the city. The men of Scratch accompanied them, scattered about so as to appear as separate travelers, each with their own intentions. The train led to a bus that carried them further still, though at that point some of the men separated, taking cabs and hired cars so as to disperse their numbers and avoid drawing attention. However, in the end, they all wound up in the same small hotel. They'd stay for the night before making their way to the safe house on foot. It was best to make sure that no one knew of their plans save for the local organization they'd been in contact with to secure the cabin. That alone had taken more of Scratch's funds than Mink was really comfortable in parting with, but it was necessary. All of this was necessary. He was close now.

Sei was in a room with him, of course. He'd followed Mink in, settled obediently on one of the two beds in the room, and waited as Mink stashed their bags in the closet, doing a quick sweep of the room for any sort of bugs. No one should have known that he was here, but at this stage caution prickled at his skin like a palpable energy. He couldn't shake it off so easily.

Satisfied with his rounds, he turned back to where Sei sat on the bed, watching him. The bird was at Sei's shoulder again, Sei's fingers resting lightly in its feathers. It was a familiar sight.

"Go wash up," Mink said. "We're leaving early tomorrow."

Sei didn't move at first. He didn't speak either. He only sat, staring intently at Mink with his dark eyes hiding some sort of thought that Mink couldn't begin to fathom.

It made Mink's hair stand on end, feeding the tension that drew his muscles tight against bone and skin. He gritted his teeth, an irritated growl at the back of his throat, ready to be unleashed when Sei rose, the bird moving from his shoulder in a flutter of wings and feathers.

"I'll be quick," was all he said before he vanished into the small hotel bathroom.

The bird came to rest on the back of the room's only chair, its head tilted to watch as Mink let out his coiled breath in a rough sigh.

"Your mental state is strained," it observed. "If you continue in this state it may affect your body physically."

"I didn't ask for your diagnostics," Mink grunted, fishing about in his pocket for his pipe before his eyes fell on the "no smoking" sign plainly resting on the hotel table. His hand dropped to his side, strangely light without the weight of his chains. Though they served his image as Scratch's head, they never would have made it past international security at the airport.

"That may be true," the bird said. "However, my programming dictates that I inform you of such things when my analysis indicates that your risk factors exceed a given threshold."

"Has it gotten that far already?" Mink said with a scoff, settling heavily on the edge of the bed, facing the bird.

"It is certainly nearing that threshold. Please forgive me for exercising my discretion in the matter."

"Hah," Mink pushed the breath from his lungs. He drew it in again, slow and steadying.

The bird wasn't wrong. After his first operation had led him to Sei, the strike against Toue that stood before him seemed to have built itself into a demon in his mind. He had every tool that he needed at his disposal to exact his revenge. He was only mere days away from seeing the blood of his clan paid for with the blood of the man who had destroyed them. The importance of it, the finality of it pressed down upon him like a palpable burden. It was a weight on his shoulders that he'd borne for so long, yet now that he could see his resting place it seemed that he could feel the weight all the more.

He hadn't been sleeping well. He'd eaten only when it was necessary. He felt the fatigue wear on his body, but he pushed through it regardless.

"I'll rest tonight," he murmured after a moment, quiet enough that he could barely hear himself over the sound of the shower running in the hotel bathroom.

The bird nodded, its sensors could likely filter out such sounds better than the human ear. "That would be prudent. Your success will depend on your ability to function at peak condition."

Mink made a low noise of assent. He threaded his fingers together, resting his arms against his thighs. Even without his pipe, without his totems, he could still make his prayers.

He wasn't aware of the passing of time until the water in the shower stopped. Turning his head slightly, he watched the door to the bathroom, waiting, until it opened and Sei emerged. He had one towel resting across his shoulders, the other wrapped around his waist. The heat of the water had brought out a healthy glow in his skin, light pink underneath his usual pallor. He'd put on weight since Mink had taken him in. His flesh no longer seemed to cling to his bones, the lines of his chest and arms had smoothed into healthier, more natural planes. His hair clung to the skin of his neck and face, like brush strokes made against a light canvas, drawing the eye to the wide, dark eyes that stared back, meeting Mink's gaze.

He'd been staring. He'd seen Sei naked before, watching over the boy as he showered wasn't an uncommon event, but the dim underground of Scratch wasn't the same as the warm light of their hotel room. It wasn't the same as seeing a body he'd witnessed at the brink of death showing signs of life like this. Something twisted in his chest, Mink felt heat burn at the tips of his ears. He didn't break his gaze, not watching to draw attention to the fact. Sei didn't look away either.

He held Mink's gaze for a moment longer, before he spoke.

"You can shower now, if you'd like."

"Yeah," Mink said, and rose.

He brushed past Sei without looking down at him. Yet as he did, the scent of the boy's life lifted from his warm and wet skin, curling against Mink's tongue with the short breath he drew in. It was different now.

When Mink pushed the door to the shower open and shut it behind himself the scent all but enveloped him. Of course it would, he thought, even with the cheap hotel soap overlaying it, the heat and the water had brought out the smell of Sei himself more than anything else.

Unlike the strained, sickly scent that had clung to Sei before, there was an undercurrent of something different to this smell, something more vibrant, lively. It still wasn't strong enough. It was like green seedlings trying to push their way up through a layer of decay, like fresh mountain air only barely seeping in through a thick, polluted fog. But it was there. There was no mistaking it.

It wouldn't serve anything to deny it, so Mink simply accepted it as he drew his shirt over his head, reaching out to start the water once again. Sei was learning what it was to live, and that alone had changed the power of life that rested within him.

Mink showered quickly, trying to not let his thoughts linger too long on what the changes in Sei's self might mean, on what could have brought them about. When he stepped out, drawstring pants loose about his waist as he pressed a towel to his dreadlocks, he found Sei and the bird seated on the bed.

Sei had changed into a pair of sweatpants and a loose shirt that Mink had bought for him for the trip. The more normal their luggage looked, the less it would arouse suspicion. The bird rested on his knee, turning its head to regard Mink when he entered. Sei looked up to him as well, hushed words apparently dying on his lips as he did.

Mink knew what an interrupted conversation looked like, having witnessed this scene between his machine and his captive enough times. However, given Sei's reluctance in striking up a conversation in the days leading up to their departure, the change in attitude seemed strange. He lifted one eyebrow, regarding the two of them before he made his way over to the other side of the room and the bed closest to the windows.

"You can't keep secrets from me with my AllMate," he said, sitting on the edge of his bed.

"I wasn't trying to," Sei replied, turning over to face him.

"A conversation that stops as soon as I enter the room doesn't give that impression." His hands continued their work, pressing at his dreadlocks, drawing water from them until they'd be dry enough to sleep on without having to spare any worry about soaking the pillow through.

"Bird, enter sleep mode," he said, not waiting to see if Sei had more to say.

"Very well," the bird replied, fluttering up from Sei's knee to make its resting placed perched on top of the chair.

Abandoned by his companion now, Sei turned to face Mink, knees drawn up to his chest.

"I'd asked him about your mental state," Sei said after a few moments. "He'd wanted to check on mine as well."

"And what did he tell you?" Mink turned to fix a one-eyed glare on Sei.

"You haven't been resting well," Sei said, his gaze falling to the tops of his knees.  "Your current levels of fatigue aren't enough to impact physical performance, not yet, but in combination with your mental anxieties it's a cause for concern. That's all."

"Hn." Mink drew the towel off of his head, rising to return it to the hotel bathroom. "I don't recall asking for your concern, brat."

"I know that you haven't. That's just what he said."

"And what do you intend to do with that information?" Mink asked, hanging the towel on the bar in the bathroom before turning back into the room. He stopped at the foot of Sei's bed, facing the boy, one hand resting at his hip.

Sei's gaze had followed him the whole way. His eyes were locked on Mink's now, arms curled around his legs, fingertips pressing lightly into the loose fabric that covered them.

"With my power, I could help you rest."

"You mean the power of your eyes?" Mink lifted one eyebrow in question, staring down at Sei incredulously.

"That's right." Sei nodded, slightly. "My power can plant a thought in someone's mind, give life to something that wasn't there before. If I told you 'it's all right to rest now,' you would have no choice but to believe it."

"You've done that sort of thing before," Mink said, narrowing his eyes.

"I have. You know that as well."

"Then why do you think I'd want it if I haven't asked for it?" Mink said plainly, his lips pressed into an unimpressed line across his face.

"It was only an offer," Sei said, the words tight in his throat.

"Do you make a habit of offering what's unwanted?"

"That's not it."

Mink sighed. He turned away, making his way over to his bed. "I don't have time for you hiding behind your words. Hurry up and sleep."

Mink could hear a protest in the sharp inhale of Sei's breath from across the room. Yet as he lay down against the small hotel bed, eyes closed and arms crossed over his chest, the words didn't come. All he heard was the shift of the covers of Sei's bed and the soft click as the hotel lights went out.

Mink didn't sleep well. He hadn't been sleeping well. The bird was right about that much, at least. In his dreams he saw flames and breathed in smoke. He heard the cries of his mother, his father, his sister, as the walls of the prison around him crumbled into the ash of forests. Chains lashed around his wrists and arms, pulling him back against a cold, concrete wall as he was left with no choice but to watch the slaughter around him.

Yet just when he felt like his last breath would be choked from him, when he thought that his heart would burst from his chest, he felt a touch to his shoulder. He turned, the chains loosening enough to allow the motion, and saw the wall behind him had disappeared. Instead, there was a meadow spread out before his eyes, one that he knew from the forest where he'd grown up.

The touch had been his sister's hand. She stood there before him as she had been in his memories. Her face glowed with the dappled sunlight through the trees above them, dark eyes warm as the smile that graced her lips.

"Mink."

Her voice floated to him on the wind, and he felt his heart tighten in his chest, his fingers curled gently around hers. His eyes stung at the corners, salty and wet, but in his dream he couldn't think of why. His sister only laughed, cheerful and bright as the wildflowers that surrounded them.

"Mink," her voice was quiet, soothing. His head rested in her lap, her long, sure fingers stroking through his bright red hair, fanning it out against his shoulders, against her skirt, and against the verdant green of the grass beneath them.

He let out a low breath, drawing in the scent of the sun's warmth, of the life that was the flowers and the forest around them.

"Willow," he whispered, and slipped deeper into his dream.

 


	10. Chapter 10

Mink woke to the morning sun streaming through the hotel windows. His muscles tensed for a moment, on edge, before he remembered where he was and why he had come here. The pursuit of Toue, he was close. The thought stood at odds with the strange nostalgic warmth that his dreams had left seated in his chest. He sighed quietly, trying to grasp the fragments of the dreams in the moments before they faded like morning mists burnt away in the sun's light. He didn't often dream of his homeland these days, not unless the dreams were marked by smoke and ash and the impending feeling of suffocation. Having a dream so calm left him feeling strangely rested, at ease.

He lingered in the feeling for a moment, turning it over in his mind. He felt the way that the warmth of it stretched to the tips of his fingers, soothing the tension he'd grown accustomed to feeling beneath his skin. The corners of his eyes stung and he reached up to press his fingers against them, unsurprised when they came away damp. The last of his tears had be shed long ago, but it seemed that even dreams could draw water in a time of drought.

Sighing, his lips pulling into a grimace at the way the sound caught in his throat, he pushed himself up from his bed, turning to look to the figure resting in the bed beside him.

Sei was still asleep. The rise and fall of his chest was steady and slow. The boy's face was as much of a mask as it was when he was awake. His lips parted slightly, his eyebrows relaxed over the pale of his closed eyelids. Dark strands of hair fell across them both, brushing against his lashes, but remaining as still as the rest of his expression, undisturbed in his rest.

Mink's finger twitched at his side as his eyes moved across the black lines drawn against Sei's skin by his hair, over the slightly melancholy expression drawn on his sleeping face. If Sei had dreams, it seemed that they were hardly as comforting as the ones that Mink had witnessed. But it was none of his concern.

"Oi," he said, letting the rough edge of his voice rise. "Hurry up and get moving. We're leaving soon."

Sei's dark eyes opened instantly. His hands moved to push himself up as he turned to meet Mink's gaze.

"Good morning," Sei said.

Mink furrowed his brow. The brat had never made a point of pleasantries before. Mere days away from his father's demise and his own inevitable destruction seemed a strange place to start.

"Get dressed and get out," Mink grunted. "We're not stopping once we're on the road."

Even if it wasn't the response he was expecting, that seemed to do enough to silence Sei's change in attitude. With a silent nod, the boy pushed himself from the bed as well, quietly setting about readying himself for their departure as Mink did the same.

-

The cabin was an hour and a half hike up into the mountains, splitting off from the beaten trail after about twenty minutes. For Mink and his men, picking their way through the woods with only their coil's GPS to rely on was a simple feat, but for Sei it proved significantly more difficult.

It only took about twenty minutes before Mink heard the telltale sound of branches cracking behind him. He turned, just in time to put an arm to Sei's waist and catch him before the boy went tumbling down the mountainside. Sei was trembling in his arm, his breath labored and muscles taxed from the climb. His dark eyes only met Mink's for a moment before lowering, letting their focus fall on where his hand curled against the fabric of Mink's shirt. Sei had reached out to grab hold of him as he fell.

With a grunt, Mink pulled his arm away, steading Sei on his feet before he did. He shifted, pulling the pack off of his back and turned to his men.

"Takemoto," he said, thrusting the pack out with one hand. "Take it."

"Oh," Takemoto turned, taking the pack without question, but raising one eyebrow at the display in front of him. "Mink-san?"

Mink jerked his chin in Sei's direction, lowering himself down into a crouch as he did. "We need him to make the trip." He turned to the boy then, reaching back with both arms. "Get on."

Both Sei and Takemoto stared. Takemoto snorted first, shrugging Mink's pack onto his back as he set back out along their path.

"Toue's pretty little princess gets the special treatment, huh?"

"Can't be helped," Mink heard Yuzawa chip in from up ahead. "Without that little brat, we're up shit creek without a paddle."

The two of them laughed, continuing on the path. Sei still hadn't moved.

Mink sighed. "I'm carrying you," he said, nodding towards his back for emphasis. "Either get on or we'll find another way."

Sei glanced up, at what Mink imagined were the retreating figures of Yuzawa and Takemoto in the distance, before finally he nodded, stepping forward to put his legs through Mink's arms, his arms wrapped about Mink's broad neck.

With a grunt, Mink stood, lifting Sei's weight easily after taking only a moment to adjust the balance of him against his back. Sei made no comment, settling in quietly against him, the soft texture of his hair brushing against the side of Mink's cheek. Mink paid it no mind, taking long strides against the forest floor to close the distance between him and the rest of the gang.

-

Scratch's arrival at the cabin was met by a flurry of activity. Mink's men wasted no time in sorting through the equipment that their contact had provided, re-establishing their connection to Toue's security feed with Sei's assistance and confirming the inventory of supplies that lay in wait for them.

Mink's orders were for them to prepare, rest up, and then move out. A small detachment would stay in the cabin, connected by a private channel radio, to alert the strike team of any abnormalities or detection alarms from Toue's security. The strike team itself would leave early in the morning, aiming to hit the bunker late into the night shift but before the morning guards had a chance to prepare themselves for the day. They would be outnumbered, there was no way to avoid that situation, but armed with the knowledge of the weak spots in the security rounds and the likely fatigue of the late night guards at the end of their shifts, Mink hoped to have the advantage.

All he would need would be for his men to hold a path until he could make his way to where Toue awaited at the center of the bunker. That was all that mattered.

An uneasy silence settled over the cabin as the late afternoon sun dipped lower into the sky. Some of the men were already resting, stretched out on cots and makeshift beds, bulletproof vests covering them as assault rifles and handguns rested at their sides. The rest moved about carefully, speaking in hushed tones to one another. They understood the importance of making sure that the strike team was in peak condition for the raid, and no one wanted to draw Mink's anger or give any impression that this mission wasn't the highest priority on their minds right now.

Mink had settled into a smaller room towards the back of the cabin, one of the few spaces that had an actual bed, though its metal frame and beaten down mattress had certainly seen better days. He sat in the room's only chair, shoulders hunched, arms resting against his thighs, as he watched the shadows stretch against the cabin walls, watched the sky framed by the room's one window slowly change its color from a vibrant blue to burning tones of red and gold.

Sei was with him. He had settled against the wall of the cabin, eyes silently fixed on Mink as the two of them waited together. However, Mink no longer felt Sei's gaze on him now. The trek through the woods had left him fatigued, more so than he would admit. When Mink stole a glance to the side, he saw his suspicions were confirmed. Sei was asleep now. His head had fallen to the side, pressed against the frame of the bed, arms slack as they rested over his knees. He could see the slow rise and fall of the boy's chest from where he sat. The light of the setting sun dyed his pale skin into a healthier glow, warm colors seeming to sink into Sei's skin and radiate out from it.

Mink's eyes traced a path from the sharp contrast of Sei's dark hair where it cut a line against the delicate curve of his jaw, following it down the slender column of his neck, over the smooth line of his shoulders, down the length of his arms and to the soft tips of his fingers where they hung, brushing lightly against the air. There was no need to hide the flush of heat he felt at his cheeks this time. Instead, he only ducked his head, sighing quietly.

Sei was beautiful. Even if it was only his own aesthetics that determined such a thing, whether he denied it or not wouldn't change the fact. In the brief time that he'd spent with the boy, the weight of it had sank and settled somewhere deep in his chest. What he'd stolen from Toue was more than just a tool. He'd taken a life that was tender and fragile, one that was coming apart at the seams, and had woven his own influence into that.

He'd done the boy no brutality, no excessive harm. Yet in something that simple, he'd shown Sei a world that was beyond anything that he'd ever experienced before. For a world defined by torment and neglect, even something as simple as the absence of pain and coercion would seem like a kindness. In doing so, he wondered at how Sei might look upon him. He wondered how Sei might look upon his own life.

He wouldn't go as far to call the strange swelling feeling within his own chest anything near affection or love, but its presence demanded recognition all the same.

It was hope, perhaps. Hope that the boy could live, hope that he could see some chance of recovery from the destruction that Toue had wrought, life pressing stubbornly forward up through the ashes and rubble.

Mink knew that tomorrow would be the trial that would test the limits of that hope. Sei would be coming with him, as a hostage and as a failsafe plan if their connection to security was cut. That would put him face to face with the man who was his tormentor and his captor, but the man who called himself his father as well. In the end, whether or not Sei had the strength to stand before Toue, to stand in defiance of all that had defined his life until this point, was something that only time could answer.

Knowing that, Mink lifted his eyes to the boy's resting figure once more, for once lending a silent prayer to the gods on his behalf. That something broken might have the strength to mend.

-

The lightbulb overhead shattered in an explosion of sparks and broken glass. Mink grunted a curse, his hand tight on Sei's wrist as he hauled the boy into a hallway behind him, narrowly avoiding the hail of bullets from the security guards who stood before the double-doors that were the last bastion between them and Toue himself.

Everything was going as well as Mink could have hoped. Moving in under the faint light of the early morning, he and his men had made their way past three of the five armored doors that stood between him and Toue before they'd been detected. The small security force stationed at the bunker had almost made an impressive stand beyond the fourth door, Takemoto took a bullet to the leg before Scratch proved victorious once again, pressing forward with relentless determination.

Now there were only two guards, cut off from reinforcements and fatigued, who stood in his way.

Glancing across the hallway to Yuzawa, Mink gave the other man a short nod. Yuzawa returned it with a grin, pulling the pin from a flash grenade from his vest before tossing it down the short distance of the hallway between the guards and them. As soon as Mink heard the tell-tale bang, he twisted, gun in hand, making four precise shots to debilitate the men in front of him. They went down with cries of pain, guns clattering to the floor as they clutched at the fresh wounds now spewing blood from their knees.

"Go!" Mink barked, and his men followed.

The few who weren't already securing their escape path surged forward, knocking the guards' guns out of reach before jerking the men's hands behind their back, binding them up with zip ties.

"Hey, no offense," Yuzawa sneered at one of them, shoving the man to the side of the hallway as he hefted his gun into the air. "Looks like you picked the wrong line of work."

"Enough talk, you'll hold position here," Mink said, stepping forward to the security panel at the side of the door. He turned, satisfied to see that Sei was only a step behind him, and nodded to the screen. "Get us in. This is the last one."

Sei held his gaze, dark eyes unblinking, unflinching as he stared on, his jaw set, lips pressed in an even line. It was like staring at a mask or a doll. Any trace of emotion that Mink had seen upon the boy's face was gone now, wiped cleanly away at the thought of confronting the man who waited beyond this door. Mink understood the feeling well enough.

Mink turned, just in time to see the words "Access Granted" display in green against the security console. With an electronic ping, the door before him whirred to life and opened.

The wall they faced in the room beyond was covered in monitors, all displaying the security system's camera feeds. Mink could see in those screens where his men held their positions, in some places exchanging fire with the few remaining guards within the complex, in others simply standing sentry as they tended to their wounds. But far more important than that was the broad wooden desk that sat in the center of the room, facing the doorway. At its center was the tall back of an elegant office chair. Just above the edge of the desk, leaning against the chair's side, Mink could make out the shape of a walking cane, topped with a metal cast rabbit's head.

He was here.

Mink lifted his gun, keeping his aim fixed on the back of the chair, and stepped into the room. Sei moved behind him. The door slid shut with a whirr. The sound of the struggling guards and Scratch's banter was silenced. Save for the faint electronic hum of the monitors before him, the sound of his own ragged breathing and the quickening pace of his pulse inside his ears, the entire room was silence.

He didn't move. Sei didn't move. Toue didn't move. Mink frowned.

Mink had never been in Toue's presence before. Everything he knew of the man, he had witnessed through televised broadcasts, security feeds, and other intel. Yet that alone was enough to paint a picture of a man obsessed with his own ideology, in love with the picture of the world that lived only in his mind. It didn't paint a picture of a man who would stay silent in the face of death.

"You know what's happened, don't you?" he called out.

There was no reply.

Frowning, Mink stepped forward. Some of the tension slipped from his shoulders, his pulse slowing as an unsettling feeling spread through his chest, clutching his heart in its cold fingers, spreading a chill through his blood.

His footsteps echoed against the metal walls. The chair was fixed in his sights. It stood before him, an unmoving monolith, taunting him, mocking him, until he was close enough to reach out across the desk and grab it in his hand, wrenching it around.

"Oi--" he started, the curse dying on his lips.

Toue's walking cane clattered to the ground, metal against metal, clanging against the walls and reverberating within the static white of Mink's mind.

Toue was there, before him. This close he could see the creases against the man's forehead, the peppering of grey hairs slicked back with product against his skull. His hands, gloved in white, were folded together resting against his lap. The stern line of the man's jaw was slack, his mouth closed, eyes closed, in an expression that was neither disappointment nor discontent.

He reeked of death.

To his side, he heard the whirr of a door opening. His mind snapped back to focus, gun raised as he turned and took aim at the sound.

The door opened to a dark hallway, likely an escape route, a last ditch effort in case any intruders made their way this far into Toue's inner sanctum. Yet standing there in front of it were two men, one taller than the other, both with shocks of light blonde hair and complimenting suits. Mink's eyes narrowed. He knew them, Midorijima's yakuza. Virus and Trip. Toue's men, through and through.

Virus stood in front, his eyebrows raised slightly as he regarded Mink and the barrel of Mink's gun. His smile widened, hands clasped behind his back as he stepped into the room.

"My, this certainly is rather unexpected," Virus said, his lips curling over each worth with a seething politeness that made Mink's lip curl. "It is, of course, a pleasure to see Scratch's head so far from his own territory. However, given the circumstances, I hardly think that it's necessary to ask what occasion has brought you here."

Mink snorted, narrowing his eyes at the two men. "I wouldn't say the same for you, yakuza."

"That's very true, please forgive my manners. I suppose that you could say we've simply come to retrieve a lost item."

Virus turned, his gaze straying from Mink to the doorway he'd came through. Mink flicked his gaze to the side, just enough to see, out of the corner of his eye, where Sei stood. Sei's eyes were wide, his shoulders set, his lips parted in a look of shock.

"We've come to pick you up," Virus said. "Playtime's over now, Sei-san."

 


	11. Chapter 11

"Hah?" Mink's eyes narrowed, sparing another sideways glance to where Sei stood, just to confirm that he remained unmoving. "He's not some damn child."

"I was quite impressed by the means of your escape," Virus continued, entirely ignoring Mink's words, and his gun, as he stepped across the room towards Sei. "It seemed rather uncharacteristic of you."

"That's right," the other one, Trip, drawled from where he stood, still leaning against the hallway door.

Unlike Virus, Trip's eyes were fixed squarely on Mink. With shoulders hunched and eyes narrowed, Mink could feel the predatory nature of the other man's gaze against the back of his neck. The cooperation between Virus and Trip was clear enough now. Where Virus provided subterfuge, plotting, and a polite word, Trip provided muscle and other means of persuasion. Silently, Mink cursed that Scratch and his reinforcements, as close as they were, were too far to call for backup without drawing Virus and Trip's unwanted attention.

Trip grinned, almost as though he could read Mink's thoughts. "Weren't we taking good care of you, Sei?" he drawled, turning his gaze back over to the boy.

"You took good care of me," Sei spoke up, at last, confirming their words with a quiet voice, stripped of emotion. "I was very grateful for that."

"You're too kind, Sei-san," Virus said with a polite nod. He finished crossing the room, coming to stand between Sei and Mink, in open defiance of Mink's weapon. "However, the fact remains that you removed yourself from that care."

"I'm very sorry for that," Sei replied. Something about the submission in his voice, the sound of utter defeat, clenched around Mink's chest like a vice. He grit his teeth.

"You shouldn't worry over it. After all, it was through our own neglect that you came to feel that such an action was possible."

"That means," Trip cut in, "it was too light."

"I wholeheartedly agree. Don't you, Sei-san?"

"Oi," Mink bellowed, forcing the words from his chest so they reverberated against the bunker walls, shaking with his anger. "I'm not standing here while you chit chat, yakuza."

Virus finally turned, regarding Mink with a thin, forced smile. A crack in the veneer of politeness. "Oh my, where are my manners today?"

"I don't need your bullshit," Mink spat back, jerking his chin towards Sei. "He's mine now. I don't recall giving you what's mine."

"Very well," Virus said, an exaggerated sigh slipping from his lips. "Trip?"

"Welter," Trip quipped.

A beat later, Mink heard another set of footsteps from the hallway. He turned, jerking his gun up, but nothing could have prepared him for the charging bulk of a full sized black lion AllMate that launched itself at him from the doorway.

The few shots he got off did nothing to deter the mechanical beast. With a roar, the creature crashed against him, sending the two of them tumbling to the ground. Mink swore under his breath, just barely managing to toss his gun away and grab the beast's jaws in his hands before they threatened to close against his throat. His muscles tensed, shoving at the beast with all the strength his arms could muster.

As the beast's artificial growls reverberated against him, the gears in its jaw working as it tried to press close enough to tear at Mink's flesh, he vaguely became aware of the sound of laughter. Trip's laughter.

"Look at that," Trip snorted between laughs. "They're going at it."

"Honestly, that method..." Virus's voice trailed off, almost inaudible to Mink through Trip's laughter and the beast's growls.

Mink's eyes snapped up, away from the threat looming over him for a moment, to where he could barely make out the figures of Sei and Virus, only a few steps away.

Sei was looking down at him, watching him with a detached interest. It was the same sort of look the boy gave when he'd hooked to Toue's electronics, to the bunker's systems. The boy was there, but he wasn't there. There was something else going on--

\--With a hiss, the doors behind Sei opened.

"Hey, what's--?" It was Yuzawa. Yuzawa and the men who had been holding the path for them.

Grunting, Mink pulled in a tight breath, a struggle with the AllMate's weight against him, and let out a shout. "Get in here! Get the yakuza!"

Without a moment's hesitation, his men obeyed.

They swarmed into the room. Even though he'd only stationed two of them at the door, armed as they were, it was just enough to turn the tide in his favor. When the hail of bullets started, he was even grateful for the bulk of the lion covering him. Trip's foresight in bulletproofing the beast proved to be his only protection now.

His protection was short lived, though. The lion's head jerked up, likely by some sort of parameter preset from its owner, letting out another roar as it turned to bound back to Trip. Whether it was in retreat or defense, Mink couldn't tell.

He shoved himself into a crouch without a thought, keeping low to avoid Scratch's gunfire. One hand shot out to snatch up his discarded gun, lifting it up to level the barrel at the lion's retreating form. A quick glance to the side showed that Yuzawa and one other member of Scratch wrestling Virus to the ground. His glasses were broken and askew, a bright red line of blood staining his cheek from where a bullet must have grazed him, yet the yakuza still seemed to be presenting a challenge to the two of them.

Trusting his men to finish the job, Mink turned his sights on Trip and the lion, only to nearly lose his grip on the gun in surprise. What he saw was a mirror image of his own situation mere moments before. Pressed to the ground by the bulk of the lion's weight, Trip was wrestling with the beast's jaws, trying to pry them away from where they were perfectly poised to rip his throat cleanly open. Before Mink even had a chance to comprehend the scene before him, something slipped out from the doorway behind Trip, moving across the floor in a black streak towards Virus and Scratch's men.

"Oi--" Mink shouted in alarm, but it came a moment too late.

A black snake, likely an AllMate as well, lunged towards Virus and the men. Yet instead of trying to fend them off, the snake instead seemed to be helping them, winding its coils tight around Virus's chest, pinning his arms to his side with a threatening hiss.

Mink was completely at a loss. AllMate malfunction was one thing. He'd heard stories: outlier cases where the AI program corrupted and resulted in erratic behavior, but this was something different. They were acting deliberately here. They had a goal in mind. It was almost as though--

"That's enough."

Quiet though the words were, they carried through the small room, over the sounds of the struggles between the AllMates, Mink's men, and the yakuza. Mink turned instinctively. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Yuzawa and the other men do the same. In that moment, all eyes were on one person: Sei.

The boy stood slowly, he must have been knocked down or crouched to avoid gunfire during the scuffle. He smoothed his hands over the black half-skirt he wore, before clasping them behind his back, stepping forward. The defeated, detached Sei that Mink had seen before was gone now. Even the Sei who'd curled at the foot of his bed in Scratch's headquarters could hardly be seen in the boy he saw before him.

As he stood, shoulders squared, eyes narrowed, jaw set, Sei was every bit a picture of power. He commanded the room around him. When he moved, Mink's gaze followed him, far enough to see that even the yakuza appeared to be similarly transfixed. Yet as the boy approached Virus, the man seemed to snap from it, a thin, sharp smile spreading across his face.

"Is there something that you'd like to say, Sei-san?" Virus said, his polite veneer oozing from his words, undercut by a dangerous bite of anger. The man apparently didn't take kindly to being restrained by his own AllMate.

"I think that there is," Sei replied, staring down at him. "I think that . . . I've made a choice."

"A choice? That's quite rare . . . "

From the door, a peal of laughter sounded. Both Sei and Virus looked over to where Trip lay pinned under the lion's weight, grinning like a madman. The beast growled over the man's mirth, lips curling back from its teeth, but Trip only grinned back in reply, his mouth stretched wide across his face.

"It's rare, isn't it?" he said. "Sei's making choices. Isn't that fun?"

"It isn't the first time," Sei said with a quiet determination.

"Right, right," Trip replied. "There was someone pulling Aoba this way and that, wasn't there?"

"Ah, yes," Virus nodded. "He certainly couldn't have gotten into Platinum Jail all on his own."

"Or Oval Tower either."

"That's true as well." Virus turned, smiling pleasantly at Sei. "It was your work, wasn't it?"

"It was," Sei said.

"Yes, we haven't given you enough credit. The tower was your doing as well, of course."

"Sei," Trip drawled, his eyes wide as he grinned up at the boy. "You wanted to go splat."

"Is that what you wanted, I wonder?"

"Do you wanna die, Sei?"

"I must admit," Virus said, with a jovial tone usually not reserved for someone at the disadvantage he held now. "It would be quite an interesting development, Sei-san."

A palpable silence stretched across the room. Even Mink and his men remained silent in deference to the bizarre exchange that they'd found themselves witness to. Although Sei was in power, although the yakuza were clearly at his mercy, every word, ever smirk and trick of intonation felt like a calculated blow against the front that Sei put forward.

The realization dawned on Mink at that moment. It wasn't only Toue, it was these two that Sei had learned from. They were the reasons why the boy had been so guarded, why finding the will in his words was like grasping at threads only to have them slip away into nothing. It seemed that Sei truly had known no life that wasn't comprised of torment and manipulation.

Yet there he stood, all the same, defiant in how he held his ground against the two of them, in how he had been their downfall. The sight of him like this twisted something unrecognizable in Mink's chest, but he had no time to dissect it now. Yuzawa flicked a glance to him, looking to Mink for direction, whether he should finish the job and silence Virus for now. Mink made a quick signal with his hand for him to hold. Even if it was no time for emotion, he wanted to see how far Sei would go.

His trust was rewarded a moment later. Sei stepped closer to Virus, his posture relaxing as he crouched to where the man was held on the floor.

"What's interesting has always been important to you, hasn't it?" he said, some of the edge of his voice lost in the softness of the words. "Other people never matter unless they can serve the ends that you've laid before yourself."

"Of course," Virus replied, just as conversational. "You know us very well, Sei-san."

"It's true. I know you very well," Sei agreed with a slight nod. "I knew Toue very well. I know Platinum Jail, Oval Tower, and Rhyme very, very well. But that's because those places were the only world I knew."

Sei rose, turning just enough to cast his gaze to Trip as well.

"It was the same for both of you, wasn't it? The world that Toue created for you, the world that you came from, it wasn't the same as the world beyond the tower."

Trip turned from the scrutiny, his lip curling as he looked to Virus, muttering under his breath "...This some kinda sap story?"

Virus gave no reply. Instead, his eyes were fixed on Sei. Mink could see a defiant quality in the line his mouth drew against his face, in the set of his jaw. Though Trip tried to pass Sei's words off as nothing, for Virus this was nothing to be taken lightly.

Sei took the opportunity instead, favoring Trip with a polite smile.

"It isn't anything like that. I do pity you, both of you, for what you became, but I know that you weren't offered a freedom of choice. It was Toue who helped to make you what you are."

"It's a very moving consideration," Virus said at last, with the flat intonation of someone who had never been moved in his life. "You've certainly learned a lesson or two from Toue in the art of oration. However, if you plan to see it to the end here, I'd prefer if you finished quickly."

"Tch," Trip scowled, flexing against the lion's hold on him which only earned him a warning growl.

"I don't want to kill you," Sei said. "I think--I've had enough of death, for now."

"How strange..." Virus muttered under his breath.

"It is strange, in a way." Sei paused for a moment, his posture shifting as he did, the power returning to it. "I'm going to leave you here. Before I leave, I'll remove all traces of Toue from this place, from the world. I know that I can't force you to make a choice, that would only be doing the same as what Toue's done, so I'll leave that choice with you. But no matter what you choose, it won't be easy. It won't be simple. Maybe...you'll find something from that."

"That's rather benevolent of you," Virus mused aloud.

"Sei's a nice guy, isn't it?" Trip added in a mocking jeer.

"I wonder," Sei said. He pushed himself up from the ground, smoothing his hands over his skirt and pants as he did. "You'll have to wait and see."

With that, Sei turned, finally acknowledging Mink. He didn't say anything, but Mink could see the silent question in his gaze. He sighed quietly under his breath. He'd claimed Sei as his own, for now. That had been the loyalty bought by their agreement, even if neither of them could have possibly imagined this sort of outcome.

He jerked his head towards the escape route, gesturing to Yuzawa and Sei both.

"Give the order to pull back. We're done here. We'll take the back way out."

"Got it!" Yuzawa nodded, gesturing to the men at his side and shouting into the coil they'd repurposed as a private comm line. The threat that Virus and Trip had posed was entirely forgotten as the men made their way through the bunker's control room.

In the flurry of movement, Sei remained still, his eyes still fixed on Mink, waiting for his answer to come. Mink met the intensity of that gaze once more. He could feel the answer he knew that he might have given in another time rising at the back of his throat, but he swallowed it down, forcing it away. Sei would have noticed the hesitation, though. There was nothing that escaped those eyes.

Instead, he fell again into his old habits, his expression trained as he jerked his head to the exit.

"You heard the orders. Get moving."

Sei nodded, not with the ready enthusiasm of Scratch's men who sprang to motion at Mink's command, but with slow acknowledgement of something unnamed that had passed between them in that moment. Like Mink and his men, it was gone as quickly as it came, all of them making for the exit together.

They followed the hallway through another set of rooms before it narrowed, forcing them to walk single file. The narrow path ended after a short distance at a ladder leading up to a closed hatch far above their heads. The first few men up shouted back that the way was clear. It wasn't until only Mink and Sei remained in the underground tunnel that he felt the earth rumble beneath his feet and heard the distant echo of alarm sirens from behind them.

He turned to Sei, one eyebrow raised in question.

Sei smiled in return. "I wanted to remove this as well."

"I don't care what happens to this place," Mink said. But hadn't the boy said he'd spare those yakuza?

"It's all right," Sei said, "I'm sure they'll make it out." He turned, looking back down the hallway. In the far distance, Mink could barely make out the pulsing red glow of the warning lights as they flashed with the evacuation notice.

He briefly remembered the reports of Oval Tower's destruction. No lives were lost in the collapse, thanks to early warnings advising all personnel to leave the building before it came crumbling down around them. The boy did, at least, have a sense of mercy.

"Hurry up and get going," he said, turning away from the hallway, from Toue's death and everything that had come with it. "I'm going after you."

Sei looked up to him, smiling. "All right."

 


	12. Chapter 12

The night after Scratch's return to Midorijima brought plentiful liquor and food into the walls of their base, the men rowdy and giddy with excitement. Mink hadn't explicitly sanctioned the event, yet when Yuzawa and Takemoto had suggested they do something to commemorate their victory on the way back, the noncommittal "Do what you want" had been interpreted as loosely as was necessary to sate their spirits.

Mink took part only as an observer. He refused food and drink, even leaving his pipe to rest for the moment at the altar inside of his room. Strangely, it was Sei who spent more of his time mingling and enjoying the company of Scratch's men. He was freed from his restrictions now. Yuzawa's story had even made its rounds and earned the boy enough respect to grant him protection among the rowdy group. After all, it wasn't every day that they saw a frail boy like that hold his own against two yakuza without even landing a single blow. Even if not all the men of scratch understood the full extent of Sei's powers, they knew well enough what he had done to remain in awe of it.

Mink noticed the shift in the way that Sei interacted with the men as well. Although his earlier interactions had been characterized by a sort of quiet, self-deprecating humor, the Sei he saw now seemed more at ease. He smiled a little wider, he took congratulations and compliments with a genuine and gracious air. By the time that Mink chose to retire for the evening, there almost seemed to be a flush of pride standing out against the boy's pale cheeks.

It only made sense, after all. The action that he'd taken, the defiance that Mink had seen in his words and motions wasn't anything that anyone had asked of him. It was all by his own choice. Sei had chosen his freedom, had chosen to stand against his abusers and his captors. Realizing that he had at last attained a sort of freedom could only be a heady thing for a boy raised in such captivity.

So let him have that freedom, Mink thought to himself as he shut the door to his room, the bird moving from his shoulder to its usual perch. A night of celebration was certainly the perfect time for it. Let him have this, let him savor it, and then he could make his choice as to whether or not Mink would fulfill his end of their agreement.

"It's a little early to turn in, isn't it?" the bird remarked, drawing Mink away from his thoughts.

Mink made a noncommittal noise in response, moving to settle into the chair before his altar.

There had been too much to draw his focus away after their escape from the bunker and the subsequent return to Midorijima. Alone now with nothing more than the AllMate, his own thoughts, and the muffled sounds of Scratch's rowdy brand of merrymaking beyond the door, the weight of it all finally began to settle against Mink's shoulders.

Toue was dead, though not by his hands.

The thought of it left a sour taste at the back of his throat. It was a choked and empty feeling that he couldn't seem to cast away.

Despite how much he had strove towards his goal, despite the weight and importance of the mission that he had tasked himself with, in the end his own accomplishments seemed paltry by comparison. There was no way to say whether or not the pressure that Scratch had put on the bunker that day had contributed to Toue's end. He didn't even know for certain whether the man's death had been at his own hands or by the work of the yakuza that Sei had subdued.

Yet regardless of who the actor was, the fact remained that Mink had transformed himself to achieve an end out of necessity. He had taken on the mantle of Scratch's leadership, hardened himself, accepted whatever brutality and violence would be needed to see his people avenged, and in the end it had proved futile. A bitter thought stung at the back of his mind, hot at the corners of his eyes.

How would the gods look upon him in judgement now?

There was no choice but to go to them. No life for him to lead beyond the slowly fading remnants of one that would see him to the afterlife where his family, his clan, and his ancestors awaited him. That was the path he'd laid before himself many years ago, the path that he was determined to see to its end.

He had never expected that his last steps upon it would be the most difficult to make.

With a low breath, he closed his eyes, leaning forward to brace his forehead against one hand. His fingers twitched for his pipe, but even though it rested on the table in front of him, he didn't reach for it. It would need to be returned soon as well.

This wasn't a moment of prayer, he thought bitterly. He had nothing more to ask of the gods. Instead he sat, feeling the weight of his actions sink into his shoulders, the frustration at having Toue snatched away from him at the last moment closing around his chest, squeezing breaths from his lungs until they were tight and strained.

He jolted at the sound of the bird moving, a flutter of wings before the familiar weight rested against his shoulder.

"Your emotional state is considerably disturbed," the bird said, its deep voice pitched low with concern. "I would have thought you would be happy to see your ends attained."

"Hn," Mink exhaled roughly. He breathed in again, slower now, willing the tightness in his throat to open. His lips pressed into a tight line, his jaw working in a rough swallow before he trusted his words.

"You should recognize the difference in what happened."

"That's very true," the bird said. "To drive yourself relentlessly towards an end, only to be denied it at the last moment. It certainly seems the sort of thing that would leave one at a loss."

"Don't put it so lightly," Mink muttered, his thumb pressing hard into the space between his eyebrows, driving him to focus on the single, hot point of pressure and pain that came with it.

"My apologies. It's reasonable for you to be upset."

Mink let another breath out, slowly, by way of reply.

The bird bowed its head, appropriately chastised.

"What will you do now?" it asked a moment later.

"Hm?" Mink lowered his hands, resting them in his lap as he leaned back into the chair.

"This group was formed as a means to your end, was it not?" the bird said, shifting to adjust itself on his shoulder. "Now that the end has been met, what are your intentions for them?"

"They're capable of seeing to their own affairs," Mink said. His voice sounded low and flat to his own ears. Despite the loyalty that he had commanded in Scratch's men, he had never allowed himself to feel any sort of attachment to them. They were criminals, murderers, rapists, not the sort of men that Mink would have wanted to associate with, in another time.

"So you intend to leave them to that?"

Mink answered with a quiet affirmative sound, his head shifting with a slight nod.

"I see," the bird said. "Will you return, then?"

"Yes." Mink's answer was automatic, unconscious. He pursed his lips as an afterthought, self-consciously aware of how quickly he'd spoken.

It had been years since he had seen his homeland. Years since he'd breathed in the thin air of the mountaintops, letting sand and dust coat his boots and clothes with a pale tan that seemed to make them look faded and worn beyond their years. He could remember the shapes of the flowers the grew in the shaded patches of the woods when spring came, but their scents had long since escaped his memory. He knew which ones would bear fruit, which ones could be pressed and ground into pastes and salves.

His throat closed again. He swallowed against it. A deep, burning ache was building in his chest and spreading lower.

He would return home soon, to be at the side of his family and those who had came before him.

The bird was silent. Its sensors doubtlessly told it well enough what sort of thoughts were slipping through Mink's mind at that moment. The programming and adaptation modules of its AI processing told it that now wasn't a time to speak.

It bobbed its head, waiting a moment for Mink's thoughts to settle, before it spoke again.

"Shall I begin making arrangements?"

Mink frowned, turning slightly to regard the bird with one eye. Though he'd never made it explicit to the machine, he'd never intended to bring it along. The AllMate was the same as Scratch, a tool that he now had no use for. It was something to be discarded.

Yet as his eyes tracked over the pale pink and white feathers, he found something else turning in his chest. The AllMate's navigation systems would prove useful on his return, at least. He wasn't foolish enough to think that he could trust his memory to guide him to the cabin in the woods without error.

"I'll handle it," he said.

"Very well," the bird nodded.

A moment later, it added, "And what of Sei?"

"What about him?" he said, perhaps a bit more harshly than he'd intended.

"You only asserted a claim over the boy for as long as it took to achieve your ends. He is no member of Scratch, it would seem ill fitting to leave him here as well."

"You're aware of the agreement that we made," Mink pointed out.

"That he would assist you in exchange for your guarantee of his demise," the bird confirmed with a nod. "Yet he said so himself, didn't he? That he'd had enough of death."

"Taking the death of another in your hands isn't the same as taking your own life," Mink said, folding his hands together against his lap, fingers pressing into skin. He was careful to keep any color from his voice, any tone that the bird might have been able to construe as hope. "Knowing that his own death would come soon, witnessing Toue's death in that way, he may not have wished to compound it."

"That is true as well." There was something to the intonation of the bird's voice that made Mink turn and raise an eyebrow at it. The bird's feathers ruffled slightly in apology. "I suppose the matter will be for Sei to decide."

Mink muttered an affirmative reply, turning away. "It's in his hands."

Almost as if on cue, he heard the scrape of metal against metal as the door to his room slid open. He turned, expression quickly shifting into a fixed scowl. Even intoxicated, none of the members of Scratch would risk such a move without so much as knocking first. It could only be one person standing at the other side of the door.

Sure enough, Sei's slender form quickly revealed itself as the dark steel moved aside to reveal a narrow window into the celebrations beyond. Sei's cheeks were ruddy and flushed, a wide smile fixed on his face, yet his movements were steady and sure enough that Mink didn't suspect any sort of intoxication.

Sei met Mink's gaze, his smile unwavering. His dark eyes lowered only for a moment as he moved to close the door behind him before they lifted to find Mink's once more. He was uncertain, Mink thought, but now more than ever he knew what confidence felt like. It was a look that suited him.

"Mink," he said after a moment of silence had stretched between them. His hands were clasped behind his back.

"Had enough?" Mink asked. He turned away, looking back down to the totems before him, his pipe sitting, unlit, against the surface of his desk.

"I think so." He heard Sei's footsteps against the floor, saw the boy out of the corner of his eye. He didn't move to approach the cot as he usually would, stepping straight towards Mink instead. He stopped after a moment, holding still in the middle of the room, yet it was close enough that Mink could have reached out to touch him, if he wanted to.

"Everyone is very lively," Sei said. "But I think I'm just a little tired now."

Mink made a noncommittal sound, a low rumble from his chest, acknowledging what Sei had said but giving nothing more.

Sei held still, his gaze still fixed on where Mink sat. "Will you be sleeping soon too?"

"Yeah," Mink said.

"After your prayers?"

"Yeah."

"What will you pray for now?" Sei asked without hesitation.

Mink turned. The significance of the question wasn't lost on him. Yet the way that Sei asked now had changed, the meaning of it had changed. Sei's smile had faded now, his eyes soft and expression open and wanting in a way that Mink hadn't seen before. He didn't need to question why Sei had asked such a thing now, the boy's worry and concern was clearly written on his face.

To answer now would acknowledge those feelings, to give them a place and encourage them to grow. Accepting Sei's worry would mean accepting the connection that was shared between them was something more than that of 'a user' and 'the used.' Yet denying it would tear at the still fragile fabric that the boy had woven in the places of himself that had been worn threadbare before.

Mink's heart beat heavily against his chest. He wasn't foolish enough to think that Sei would hear it, that Sei would notice, but something about the sharp edges of Sei's gaze, the intensity that rested behind his dark eyes told Mink that Sei didn't need to hear such things to know that they were true.

It seemed like a fool's errand to try to conceal the truth from him, not when both of them knew full well the work that Mink's hand had played in the creation of the Sei who stood before him now. Yet a stubborn part of Mink, the part that reminded him of how he had changed himself in the name of a goal that was left unfulfilled, still struggled against it.

He turned away, a low exhale slipping past his lips.

"For the souls of my people to find rest," he said.

Sei nodded once, knowing that Mink would see him out of the corner of his eye. He said nothing else.

Mink reached down, lifting his pipe once more.

"If you're tired, why don't you hurry up and rest?"

The words weren't an order, he had no authority to issue orders to Sei anymore.

Sei knew this and smiled.

"I will," he said. "Good night, Mink."

Mink nodded in reply, his gaze unfocused as Sei slipped away from it. He didn't move as he heard the familiar sound of Sei's body settling against the cot, nor as the bird's weight lifted from his shoulder, moving to its perch to rest for the evening.

His pipe remained unlit, held in his hands, until he heard the sound of the bird's sleep sequence initiate, until he heard the draw of Sei's breaths slow into a steady and even rhythm.

Moving slowly, with a quiet grace that few would think a man of his size possessed, Mink set the pipe against the altar once more and rose. He soundlessly moved the chair back to rest against the table, setting everything in order before he turned.

Sei's cot was less than a meter from where he stood. The boy was curled on his side, dark hair sweeping over his pale cheeks. His blankets, dirty and fraying at their edges, concealed the rest of his body, pulled up close around his shoulders and chest.

Mink crouched before him, breath catching in his throat. With one hand, he reached out. His fingertips touched to Sei's skin, feather light and gentle, as he traced the path drawn by the soft lines of Sei's hair. He wouldn't make his prayers to the gods tonight, there was no need to. But there was a weight that had settled in the room with what Sei had said. There was a weight of the question that had gone unasked, of the request that Sei had not made of him yet.

The weight of it pressed to Mink's chest, pressure against the uncertain hope he couldn't deny was sheltered there. To this boy, this fragile life that had braved so much, he pursed his lips and whispered a silent plea.

"Live."

 


	13. Chapter 13

A week later, Mink left Scratch's headquarters on patrol early one morning. Even in that short amount of time, the air around the base had changed. Where his men had once been devoted with singular intensity to the task of bringing Toue down, they found themselves idle now. He had thought that they would leave. Lacking any unifying goal, they would disperse and return to the lives they have lived before Toue, before Mink.

Yet from their idle energy, something strange had started to form. Yuzawa and Takemoto reported to him in the morning, as they always had, but this time the nature of the information they presented as different. Rather than focusing on Toue and his exploits, they told him about things like investors from the mainland, the sort with questionable connections, who had started taking an interest in the abandoned properties of Platinum Jail. They'd detailed a recent politician's visit, including his less-than-well-guarded reputation for rezoning swaths of residential land to reap the payoffs from industrial interests.

In both cases, the reports ended with the same sort of energy that Mink had seen back when it was Toue they pursued. His men grinned widely, asking Mink's permission to do what they did best: wreck havoc for those who thought their power and wealth would protect them from any sort of significant threat.

Mink had allowed it. More accurately, he had told them to do what they wanted, but the displays were proof enough to him of what was happening. Scratch was changing. It was growing from the seeds that he had planted in the name of his revenge. To stay would mean to nurture it, to tend to that growth, to claim it as his own.

The sight of the goal that the men had set their sights on left a heavy, unsettled feeling in the pit of Mink's stomach. Their admiration for him was clear, it always had been. It was something he had commanded. Yet he couldn't allow himself to continue living as the man who had inspired such loyalty in them. The persona he'd built up for himself was less a lie than it was a tool, in the same way that Scratch was a tool, in the same way that Sei was a tool.

Mink had no need for tools like those, not anymore.

Much in the same way that Scratch had changed, Sei had changed as well.

His vibrance from the night of Scratch's celebrations was not lost on the next day, nor on the day after. He followed Mink as he had before, no longer blind or bound to do so. Mink didn't think on it too heavily, lest his emotions betray him and his breath catch in his throat.

The unspoken question between them, the request that premised everything they had shared together, remained nothing more than a weight that bore on every moment they spent alone. Mink refused to broach the topic. Even asking after Sei's wishes to confirm his desires now would be coercion in a way. It would mean forcing Sei to consider the thought, forcing Sei to answer.

Even with the change in Sei's demeanor, Mink felt he could hardly expect to hear Sei's honest answer if he put pressure on the boy in that way.

Instead, the night before his departure, as they set about their familiar ritual preparing for bed, Mink had spoken up.

"That boy doesn't live far from here," he'd said, seated and facing his altar.

The sound of Sei's movements behind him had stilled, pausing for a moment before Sei's reply came.

"I know that."

Mink had let out an affirmative sound, a low rumble in his chest, and that was all. If Sei wished to remain with Scratch, it was his choice. If he wished to seek out his family, that choice lay in him as well.

So it was that Mink set out across the streets of Midorijima, past the ruin of the walls of Platinum Jail, and back to the small airport within its confines. The bird accompanied him from the air, occasionally swooping down to rest against his shoulder, a familiar weight.

"Continuing at this pace we should arrive at the airport within the next half hour," it said, preening its feathers carefully. "That will allot you three hours of time to purchase a ticket and clear security before departure."

Mink nodded, hands pushed into the pockets of his pants as he walked on.

He carried nothing with him save for the books from his room, his totems, his pipe, his Coil, a fake passport, and some cash--enough to buy what supplies he'd need when he arrived at his destination--all pushed into a small satchel slung over his shoulder. The weight of it all felt lighter than he'd expected.

The clothes he wore were an outfit he'd used as a disguise before: a long sleeved and non descript jacket over a button down shirt, casual slacks with a pair of simple loafers. He let his dreadlocks hang low, drawn into a loose ponytail at the nape of his neck rather than piled atop his head in an intimidating display. He was as far a cry from the man that people would have recognized as Scratch's leader as he could be, for the moment.

He arrived at the airport as the bird had predicted. Travel wasn't difficult to arrange, he'd only need to get to the mainland for now, yet there was an awkward pause as he approached the ticketing desk. The woman seated behind it had the look of fear in her eyes that he'd grown accustomed to inspiring in people. Yet when he spoke, he was careful to train his voice softer and quieter than it had been in a long time. She seemed surprised by it, almost charmed, at least enough so that by the time he stepped away with his ticket in hand, she smiled genuinely at him and wished him a safe flight. He muttered his thanks in reply, feeling a faint flush at the tips of his ears.

"It will take some time to adapt to, won't it?" the bird said.

Mink knew the amusement in the bird's tone was more than just his imagination.

"All things take time." Ticket and passport in hand, he moved quickly towards the security gates.

With the number of times that he'd flown in the past few weeks, the security checkpoint of Midorijima's airport was starting to hold an air of familiarity for Mink. Yet this time as he stepped through the metal detector, waved towards his waiting bag on the conveyer belt by the security officer, he knew that he was crossing a threshold. Stepping towards the gate, the weight of his satchel heavier against his shoulder with the bird's sleeping form inside it, he knew that there would be no return. Even something that had grown so familiar would soon be cast into short-lived memories, accompanying him only until he reached his final resting place.

He paused for a moment, ostensibly checking the gate information on one of the state of the art monitors that Toue had likely installed in the airport. There was really no reason to check. As upscale as it was, the airport was small, servicing only a handful of flights to various parts of the mainland per day. Their frequency had decreased even further now that the profits to be found ferrying the wealthy to and fro had dried up.

Instead, he stood still, in the space between Midorijima and his homeland, in the space between the past he had built himself and the uncertain future that lived only in his mind, and breathed in.

There was an importance in recognizing change. Long ago his father had told him this. A seed could turn to a sprout that grew into a bush, producing flowers that would be picked, dried, and ground into medicine. Each change had its own power, yet no one of them would have been possible without the last. The deconstruction of what the powers of nature and the seed had created were what created the potential for the reconstruction that lay in the medicinal properties of the flower.

Nothing went to waste. From a broken, abandoned man, he had created a persona that was cruel, ruthless, violent, and determined. Now it was time to dismantle that man as well, to make something else that would see him to his end.

He turned with a sigh, a steady exhale. Stepping forward, he drew in a slow breath through his nose.

He stopped again. His eyes lifted, narrowing as they looked to the end of the concourse.

Midorijima's airport wasn't busy by any stretch of the imagination, but even a quieter airport still saw hundreds of people passing through its gates daily. They all had their own distinct scents, some masked in perfume or cologne, others vibrant and natural. People mingling like that, hurrying back and forth between gates and the airport's few shops and cafes would of course blend the scents together. It wouldn't be impossible to think that some combination had somehow struck on something familiar, a scent that he knew all too well.

He drew another breath in through his nose, letting it rest against the back of his tongue before he exhaled.

It wasn't an impossible thought, but Mink knew well enough that it wasn't a coincidence.

He stepped forward, feet leading him to the gate. It was only a short distance away, but the steady quickening of his pulse somehow made it feel that much longer. His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth as his lips parted to draw another breath in. The scent was there again, sharp on his tastebuds, unmistakable now.

He turned the corner and found himself face to face with Sei.

The boy stood, hands clasped behind his back, the smile on his face widening as his eyes tracked over Mink's appearance before finding his gaze.

Mink stared, his mouth fixed in a thin line.

From the detritus of the man he'd started to destroy, he drew up his voice, firm and even.

"What are you doing here?"

"I was waiting for you," Sei said with a light air about him.

Mink grunted. "I can see that." His feet were fixed to the ground, weighting him in place, keeping the distance between them constant so long as they both remained motionless.

Yet it was Sei who made the first move. He stepped forward, closing the gap between them, his eyes never leaving Mink's as he did.

"I'd like to go with you."

Mink let out a rough breath. Asking if the boy had a ticket was pointless, of course he did. Cracking Toue's security system meant it would be child's play to ensure that one seat was available on a flight out of Midorijima.

"You're not asking permission," he muttered, ignoring the way that something twisted inside him when, instead of shying away, Sei's smile remained unfaltering.

"That's true. But, we had an agreement, didn't we?"

Mink's breath caught. He felt his fingers clench against the fabric of his satchel's handle. The boy had some nerve, waiting until the last minute to settle matters, but it was his last chance. Beyond the boarding doors, beyond this flight, Mink would no longer be within Sei's reach. He would no longer be the man he was before.

He managed a low sound, incredulous, before he found his words again.

"You're asking for it here?"

"I already have," Sei said, simply. "I'd like to go with you."

Mink arched an eyebrow at him in question. Sei tilted his head in reply, his expression sobering slightly.

"I know that even though I upheld my end of the agreement that you weren't able to achieve what you wanted, in the end. It doesn't seem fair of me to ask something of you after something like that, but I'd still like to."

"If you're asking, get to the point." Mink's voice was tight and low, his face a careful mask against the quickly growing weight in his chest.

Despite his efforts, Sei seemed to sense the change in his demeanor. The boy moved closer by a half-step, his face tilted upward, no longer smiling.

"You told me once that life was a gift given by the gods. That loyalty could only be found if you were allowed the chance to choose it for yourself." Sei drew his hands forward and up to his chest. The sleeves of his shirt gathered against his arm, revealing the faint pink lines that were all that remained of the restraints he had once worn. He traced against them, gentle, with the fingertips of his other hand.

"If it's my choice to follow you, that's loyalty, isn't it? If what I have now is a gift, it wouldn't be right to end it without knowing what I've been given, would it?"

Sei dropped his hands. Mink looked back up to him, his eyes taking in the steady line of Sei's jaw, the defiant tilt of his chin and the power held in the stillness of his posture.

"You said that you would promise me my end," he said, quiet power behind each word. His dark eyes were bright with his determination. "But I don't think that I'm ready to rest just yet. That's why I'd like to go with you. I'd like to follow you, until I've given my gift its due, until I've found my time to rest."

Mink met Sei's words with silence. His throat worked as he drew a slow, audible breath through his nose, Sei's scent unmistakable on the air. No longer sickly or rotten, it was something brisk and sharp now, an early spring day that had not yet shaken off the chill of winter and began to grow yet, a gust of wind that blew roughly, clearing the air after a foggy morning. It was a scent that held with it the potential and promise of life reborn, the promise of creation, the moment before rebirth.

The scent filled his lungs, pumped into his blood, and stirred his heart to life. The hope he placed in Sei had not been misguided. The boy had found something. He had realized there was a way to forge meaning in his life, and he wanted to find that meaning with Mink himself. He'd answered Mink's plea, and, in doing so, had set before Mink a path that he wouldn't have dared to think possible.

Even though the bird was packed away in his satchel, Mink could imagine the sort of deep, amused remark that it would have made if it was witness to this moment. He snorted softly, derisive, in response to the imagined taunt. The tips of his ears burned, but they were well concealed by his dreadlocks now.

Sei tilted his head at that reaction, unable to fathom the depth of Mink's thoughts but waiting on his reply all the same.

At that moment, a voice sounded over the airport intercom, drawing both of their attentions away. It was the call for general boarding to begin for their flight. All rows, all passengers.

Mink shifted the weight of the satchel on his shoulder, glancing back down to Sei out of the corner of his eye.

"Your ticket's valid?" he asked.

Sei nodded once. "Row 24, Seat A. I brought a passport as well."

Mink snorted softly, glancing down to where his boarding pass read 24B. He wasn't surprised in the least. Adjusting the satchel one more time, he stepped forward, towards the gate's boarding doors.

"You're not going to make the flight if you just stand there," he called back without turning his head.

A moment later, Sei caught up with him, moving quickly to keep pace with Mink's long strides. There wasn't much time to talk after that. They were the last two to the gate. The flight attendant checking their boarding passes gave Mink a furtive, suspicious glance, before Sei's effusive smile caught her attention, winning her over.

Mink didn't need to look to Sei to confirm the look that was on the boy's face, but he caught a glance of it as he let Sei slip past him before stowing his bag overhead. He was smiling, a wide and anxious expression on him. It was as if he'd grown so used to making a show of it, of concealing it when his emotions were truly genuine that he wasn't quite certain how to let the real thing rest upon his face. But it was more than that, at least to Mink's eyes.

In that smile there was anticipation, the promise of a world unseen. It brimmed with energy, the unseen potential of what lay beyond the first step forward on a journey. Sighing, Mink lowered his eyes and shook his head as he settled into his seat. Despite his best efforts, he felt the corners of his lips tug.

The worries that had settled in his chest earlier that day seemed like a distant dream now. There was no doubt, no turmoil over the path that laid before him. Shortly after takeoff when Sei's hand found his, a gentle but firm touch tracing the back of his palm, finding the gaps between his fingers and slipping into them, he turned his hand beneath Sei's to accept the touch. Their journey forward would be together.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And next week will be the porn you've all been waiting for.


	14. Chapter 14

The flights were uneventful, the trip to the hotel even more so. Mink could see the way that Sei's gaze was drawn away by the unfamiliar sights of the airport, the foreign language on signs, snatches of conversations that he surely couldn't understand. Yet Sei stayed close behind him through it all, following like a shadow. They arrived late at night, so they'd leave the next morning to make their way into town. The hotel was close. They only needed a room for a night. When Mink approached the desk to ask after the availability, the man behind it glanced at Sei then smiled apologetically, telling him that they only had king-sized beds available for the night.

"That's fine," Mink said, his voice soft. He didn't think of how he could feel Sei's gaze prickling at the back of his neck.

The room was every bit as plain Mink imagined it would be. A simple, spacious bed, a desk and television pressed against one wall, a moderately sized bathroom and shower. When Sei stepped in after him, he turned, taking in the room with a slight frown tugging against his lips.

It was almost endearing. The boy--Sei had likely never seen a bedroom that lacked the extravagant trappings of Oval Tower and Platinum Jail.

But just as Mink thought to offer some comment, something softly teasing and familiar, the words caught in his throat. Half a day's worth of travel, competing with the roar of jet engines and the close proximity to countless others offered by international flights, was hardly an proper space of time to define what had passed between them, or the nature of their relationship now. He watched Sei, wanting to say more, but uncertain if he could bridge that gap into a more comfortable place.

In the end, Sei's eyes found his, perhaps seeing some of that uncertainty lying behind them. To answer it, Sei only smiled.

"Is it all right if I shower first?" Sei asked, hands lightly clasped behind his back in a habitual pose.

Mink sighed, looking away. "Do what you want," he said, careful to coach the powerful edge from his voice, lest Sei hear the words as a command.

Sei seemed to notice. From the corner of his eye, Mink could see Sei's smile stretch ever so slightly wider before he slipped away into the bathroom, closing the door firmly behind him. It wasn't until the white noise of the shower's spray started that Mink moved himself. He crossed the room in only a few steps, making a careful pile of his belongings in the single chair at the room's lone desk. The weariness of travel and the disorientation of the time difference had already settled in his bones, making it difficult to stay awake.

With a heavy sigh, he sat at the edge of the bed, trying to think of what to say, how to put words to the unspoken bond that was now a reality between himself and Sei. It would need a name, if it was to continue, but Mink found himself at a loss as to just how to label it. Regardless of what it would be, it would certainly need Sei's consent as well.

The thoughts in his head moved more slowly with the strain of his fatigue. Before Mink could even put them to order, he heard the sound of the shower stop. He turned slightly to the bathroom door, waiting until it opened to reveal Sei.

Sei's skin was flush with the heat of the shower, his chest completely bare. Only a towel saved his modesty, hung loosely about his hips. One hand held it, the other resting against the wall near the door, almost as if it were supporting him as he looked out to the room until his eyes found Mink at the foot of the bed.

Mink's breath caught in his throat again. Reminded in this moment of how stunning Sei had become, he realized that there was no reason anymore to press such thoughts from his head. The sharper scent of Sei, the aroma of his life and energy, floated on the air. Mink had no reason to deny it, not now. He'd accepted Sei, accepted that the path his life would take would be at Sei's side until Sei found his own end.

Yet knowing that there was something within his grasp, something that he could so easily reach out and claim for his own, and following the motions to make that potential into reality were two different things.

His ears burned with the thought of it. Sei tilted his head, slick, dark hair, clinging to his damp skin where the heat of the shower still radiated from him.

"Do you need to use it?" he asked, his gaze holding Mink's steadily. Mink had been staring, he knew it.

"Yeah," Mink muttered quickly under his breath. He rose, reaching over Sei to grab the edge of the bathroom door and push it open. He vanished quickly, pulling the door shut behind him.

Once inside, he closed his eyes, drawing a deep breath in. He held it, slowly counting up to three, before he released it and let his eyes open. The image of Sei's body still danced in his mind against the backs of his eyelids. His thoughts were even so bold as to supply him with a dream of what actions he could have taken. They showed him his hand reaching out to brush his fingertips against the soft skin of Sei's cheeks. They treated him to a perfectly detailed assumption of what it would be like to lean forward, tilting Sei's chin up with his calloused fingers, and press his quiet, stern lips to the bow of Sei's lips that had hung open, drawing soft cool breaths in to relieve his body of the heat from his recent shower.

Mink felt his ears and nose burn hotter. He felt his body react in other ways as well. As much as he was tempted to quell his urge with a rush of cold water, his body was sore, and he could think of no better remedy for it than the stream of heat and comfort that a hot shower would provide.

His imagination saw fit to run wild in the intervening white noise. The beat of the shower's stream between his shoulders became the touch of fingertips. Rivulets that ran against his skin and muscle became lips and tongue. Mink shuddered at the thoughts, trying to push them from his mind as he set about the task of washing himself, but even still they lingered at the back of his mind. If he let his eyes lose focus in the haze of the steam and heat, he could see pale fingers against his skin, dark eyes watching him from under darker lashes.

He jerked the water off with perhaps more force than was strictly necessary. The cool rush of air that met him stepping out of the shower was enough to quell his body's reaction to at least a more manageable state.

It was pointless to assume, he reminded himself. Until matters were settled, there was nothing to stay what might happen between Sei and himself. Though Sei had come so far, he had no doubt that there were still ways that the boy was damaged. There were still places that needed a careful hand to heal.

Mink squeezed as much water as he could from his dreadlocks with a scratchy hotel towel. He'd have to take them out soon, but that would be a task for another day. Drying his body as much as he could in the steamy air, he took the pair of looser pants that he'd grabbed before stepping into the shower and pulled them on. His thoughts strayed for a moment to the way that Sei's hand had held to the towel at his waist only moments before. Sei hadn't brought any sort of luggage with him. He'd changed in the bathroom before his shower.

Mink's hand stilled at the door with the revelation. Glancing about the room he quickly confirmed his suspicions. Sei's clothes rested in a neatly folded stack at the corner of the counter. He must have mistaken them for towels at first, but seeing them now left a certainty sinking into Mink's mind.

Even if he was uncertain about what sort of shape the space between them might take, Sei seemed to have made his mind up about one thing.

Mink swallowed, his heart suddenly beating against a lump in his throat. It was pointless to assume, yet in the subtle language of how Sei spoke the message seemed clear enough. Mink regarded the neatly folded stack of clothes for a moment longer before he reached out, taking the small bottle of lotion from the counter and dropping it into the pocket of his pants.

If he was wrong, it would be a simple enough thing to simply disregard the bottle's existence until morning. If he was right, it would be better to be prepared. That was what he told himself as he slowly pulled the door open, stepping out into the cool air of the hotel room.

Sei was waiting for him at the foot of the bed. The towel was still held around his hips, his bare legs peeking out from under its edge, feet pressed flat to the floor. His hands sat to either side of his hips, shoulders hunched slightly until his attention was drawn to Mink's reappearance. He looked up, and for a brief moment Mink could see the same sort of hesitation and uncertainty that he felt in his own heart written over Sei's face. It was a searching expression, Sei's dark eyes darting back and forth to take Mink in before they settled, the two of them watching one another across the short distance that divided them.

"You're done," Sei said, pushing himself up from the edge of the bed.

"Yeah," Mink said. He remained where he stood, at the corner of the hallway into the bedroom.

It only took Sei two steps to cross the distance, only two steps until he stood before Mink. The towel moved with him, rough terry cloth parting to reveal a narrow strip of his pale thigh.

His hands rested at his side, eyes intent as he turned his chin up to regard Mink. He seemed to hesitate, only for a moment, before he reached up with both hands, curling his palms against the sharp line of Mink's jaw, fingertips brushing the line of his cheekbones.

Mink held carefully still. He watched Sei with a patient eye. The flush from his shower certainly masked the tingling that he felt at the tips of his ears from the gentle feeling of Sei's touch.

"I've seen how you watched me," Sei offered, his voice quiet even in the silence of the room.

Mink let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. "Does that mean you were watching me?" he asked, his voice matching the soft, quiet character of Sei's words.

"I was. I thought it was only fair."

"Hm." Mink let the sound rumble from his chest. Carefully, he moved one hand, covering Sei's completely with it, his calloused palm resting easily over the boy's soft skin. "What are you trying to say?"

"I know what desire looks like," Sei said. "But the way you watched me, there was more to it than just that, wasn't there?"

"There might have been," Mink conceded. He swallowed once, his throat had suddenly gone dry.

"Only you can say that for certain," Sei pointed out, a faint smile playing at the corners of his lips.

Mink's voice held in his throat. The gaze he met Sei's eyes with was not harsh as much as it was calculated, a careful attempt at taking a measure of Sei and his intentions.

Yet at the same time, it was hard to keep the quiet ache from his voice. There was a yearning there that he knew he couldn't deny. He'd already fallen for Sei. The only question that remained was if Sei felt the same towards him.

His hand shifted over Sei's, trailing down. The tips of his fingers ran against the faded lines at Sei's wrists, where the skin had healed but was still softer, more sensitive.

"Do you understand what you're asking for?"

Sei's eyes flicked ever so slightly to the side, watching the motion of Mink's hands. He could see the evidence there clearly enough, the marks that Mink had left on him, when Sei had been nothing more than an object to be used in his revenge. Yet they rested on those marks, on those reminders of the history that they had shared, and found Mink's eyes once more.

"I understand it," Sei said firmly. "The person that you were then isn't the same as the person that you were before. You'll always carry both of them with you, but the person you become will be something different from both of them."

Sei paused a moment, drawing a low breath in. His hands slid down Mink's cheeks, over the taut skin of his neck, to rest against his broad chest. He moved closer as they did, dropping his gaze and pressing himself in until Mink could feel the faint warm tickle of his words against the hollow of his throat between his collarbones.

"Even still, I think that person will be gentle. I think that he'll be kind. Because even as the person that you were, you've been gentle to me. Even as the person you were, you've shown me kindness." Sei lifted his gaze. With Sei standing closer to him now, Mink could see the way the light danced across his eyes, like stars lit in an endless night sky.

"I haven't known a life that's gentle or kind," Sei said, his voice quieter now. "I haven't known a love like that either. I want you to show me how."

Mink's hand was at Sei's cheek, his thumb brushing gently across the soft skin there, though he couldn't recall when he'd moved it. Sei leaned into the touch with a gentle, cautious smile, his hand finding Mink's, fingers curling and squeezing against the back of his palm.

Mink couldn't fight the warmth building in his chest, even as his doubts and anxiety tried to fight against it. He wasn't the sort of person that Sei thought of him, but he knew that Sei had no misgivings. It was only that the boy had put his faith in Mink and what he might become, the same way that Mink had put his hope in Sei and the life that he would choose to live.

He leaned closer, his voice painted low and thick with the pressure of his own hopes, his own barely contained desires.

"Is this what you want?" he asked into the shrinking space that divided Sei and himself. His eyes searched Sei's expression for doubt, for fear, for anything that would hold him back.

There were still hints of those things in the way that Sei's eyes studied his own, in the tremor that ran through his fingers before they squeezed tighter against Mink's. But Sei's hand found the back of his neck, drawing him in as he whispered "Yes," into the moment before they kissed.

Sei's lips were as tender as Mink had imagined they would be. He let his eyes slipped closed, carefully savoring the feeling. With a careful check on his own urges, he slid his lips against Sei's, kissing him with an aching tenderness, a quiet softness that gave Sei the chance to pull away or press closer if he wanted to.

Sei was not at all inexperienced when it came to kissing. His lips moved gently with Mink's only for a moment before a low sound built at the back of his throat, reverberating through the heat of his mouth. The hand at Mink's neck tightened, pulling him closer, and Sei's lips slowly began to move to match that insistence.

Mink let Sei take the lead. He let Sei be the one who coaxed his mouth open with gentle, almost shy touches of his tongue. He let Sei angle his lips to kiss deeper, let Sei grow bolder with hints of teeth against his lips, until they both pulled away, breathless and flushed.

Letting his eyes half open, Mink saw the flush against Sei's wet lips. Sei's fingers pressed to his hand, to his neck, squeezing in uncertain pulses. Mink pursed his lips, keeping his voice quiet and low.

"Is it all right?" he asked.

Sei nodded, after a moment. "Yes," he said, his voice still faint.

Mink couldn't help but smile, just a little, rubbing his thumb across Sei's cheek in a soothing motion. "Is that all you wanted?"

Even if it hadn't been much, Sei seemed to catch the teasing hint in Mink's voice. He met Mink's hooded gaze with one of his own, his lips curling in a slight smile. "No, that's not all."

Mink hummed, a low and curious sound, before their lips met again.

Sei showed no hesitation this time. He drew Mink with the wet heat of his mouth, the nervous tension of his hands stilling against Mink's neck, drawing him closer instead. Mink felt his control slipping, felt the urges of his body building inside him, pushing him ever closer to the edge. He felt a low groan pull from his throat, rumbling against his lips, Sei's lips. Only a moment passed before Sei answered with a low, wanting moan of his own.

There was no reason for Mink to hold back. He let himself meet Sei's desire in the kiss, let himself press a hand to the small of Sei's back, drawing him closer, pressing their bare chests flush together. Sei didn't resist him, but more importantly Sei moved with him. Sei's arm snaked out under his, fingertips playing along the taut skin of his back, his palm a warm and insistent pressure against Mink's shoulder blade. Sei drew him in just as he had done. Sei wanted him the same way that he had found he wanted Sei. This was theirs to share together.

Dizzy with the thought, it was Mink who pulled away first, gasping. As his eyes opened, he was met with Sei's coy smile, his dark eyes beckoning.

"Mink." The way Sei's voice curled over his name settled low in his belly, urging him on.

"What is it?" He asked, aware of the husky quality that his own voice had taken on.

"I want more," Sei said. He stepped back, towards the bed, drawing Mink with him in the motion. His gaze never left Mink's eyes. "I want to feel you."

"You can feel me now, can't you?" Mink knew what Sei meant by the words. He knew that cloaking desire in subtleties and hints might have been easier for him, but he had his own wants as well. He brushed a strand of Sei's still-damp hair away from his face with a gentle touch, letting his fingertips trail against Sei's cheek. "Can't you feel this?"

Sei shook his head, dislodging Mink's hand. Mink watched, careful, not wanting to upset Sei or to push him too far now, but he was surprised when the smile against Sei's lips curved wider, almost stubbornly playful.

"No," Sei said. He pursed his lips, thinking better of it. "I can feel that," he clarified, "But I want to feel more."

"More?" Mink hummed.

Sei stilled as the back of his legs hit the side of the bed. He squirmed in Mink's hold, the towel around his waist dipping precariously lower with the motion. Both of his hands drew up to Mink's face. His fingers roughly threaded through Mink's dreadlocks, fingertips brushing the matted hair away until they clasped together at the nape of Mink's neck.

"I want you inside me," Sei said, matter of fact.

Even if that much was obvious from the way they had been touching, from the nature of their current circumstances, the blunt statement left Mink's cheeks tingling with a heated flush.

He let out a low breath, a rough laugh trailing on the end of it. "Isn't that demanding of you," he murmured through smiling lips.

"Should I make it a request?" Sei asked, lowering himself to the bed as he did.

Mink paused for a moment, staring down at Sei below him. Sei's arms were stretched out, his hands still holding to the back of Mink's neck, his gaze steady but expectant. He knew that Mink wouldn't deny him this. He wasn't wrong.

Slowly, Mink lowered himself down, bracing himself over Sei with one arm against the bed, his legs parted to straddle Sei's narrow hips. His dreadlocks, still damp from the shower, fell about them like a curtain, casting shadows and slivers of warm light against Sei's face beneath him.

"Shouldn't you ask me if I want to?" Mink asked, dropping a light kiss against the corner of Sei's lips, shifting aside to kiss the other as he waited for Sei's reply.

Sei let out a tight exhale, his breath hot against Mink's cheek. His lips curved under Mink's kisses into a wider smile.

"Mink," he said, quieter now, a whisper meant for only Mink's ears. "Do you want me?"

Mink's breath caught in his throat, held there by the warmth that swelled up from his chest. He swallowed, but his voice was still thick with emotion when he found it.

"Yes."

Sei's lips found his in an instant. He met them just as quickly, pressing Sei down against the bed with the force of his kiss. Sei rose up against him with an eager sound, his hands suddenly restless against Mink's neck, searching for purchase to tangle in his dreadlocks.

Mink could feel the heat of Sei's body beneath him in waves. He reached out, eager to touch, to map the soft skin beneath him with his palm and fingertips. As his fingers traced a path down the column of Sei's throat, he felt the skin shudder and hum with Sei's voice, his moans. He drank each of them in through their kiss, his hand trailing lower still, spread wide against Sei's chest.

His palm brushed over the pert skin of Sei's nipple, pausing to rub gently over it. When Sei shuddered at the touch, he felt it. When Sei gasped into the kiss, he heard it. Every sense was alive in that moment with Sei.

In reply, Sei's back arched beneath him, his chest twisting and pressing up into each pass of Mink's hand. The quiet, unassuming tenor of Sei's voice that Mink had grown accustomed to was replaced by something lower, more visceral, as Sei moaned and gasped beneath him.

He felt the heat between his legs pulse with each response that Sei gave him. Every expression of Sei's pleasure, of Sei's want and need, was like a spark lit inside him, swiftly feeding the smoldering flames inside his chest. Sei's own experience aside, it had been too long since he had held someone tenderly. In his years of seeking revenge, not once had he allowed himself to be distracted by the promise of something like this, something intimate and loving.

Mink craved it. He wanted it. This connection, the significance of what they would share here, in this moment, was like a salve laid over an ache in his chest that he had turned a blind eye to for so many years.

He pulled away from the kiss with a low gasp, his vision hazy as his eyes slowly panned over Sei's body, taking in the sight of his hands against Sei's skin, of Sei's lips parted as another moan spilled from them.

Sei sucked in a low breath, his eyes half lidded and open as he gazed at Mink hovering over him.

He was beautiful, Mink thought. Yet somehow, he couldn't bring himself to say as much. Instead, he pursed his lips into a fine line, wetting them once with his tongue before he lowered himself against Sei's body, kissing against the damp and sweat streaked line of his throat.

"Mink," Sei sighed into his ear. It was something like a prayer, a plea made only for him to hear.

He answered it with another kiss, a hint of teeth and tongue, as his lips marked a trail against the skin of Sei's throat. Pressing so close to Sei's skin like this, he inhaled Sei's scent more strongly than ever. It filled his lungs, bright and vibrant, yet still young and fragile. It was life that surrounded him, Sei's life, the life he had chosen.

His hands framed Sei's chest carefully, palms sliding against his skin as Mink made his way down. He licked against sweat pooled in the hollow of Sei's collarbone, traced his lips against the center of Sei's chest. Sei was eager and wanting beneath him, his fingers still woven and tangled in between Mink's dreadlocks, loosely holding to him as he let his body writhe against the bed.

As Mink's tongue dipped into the hollow of Sei's navel, he glanced up. His amber eyes were sharp as they watched Sei's expression, the curve of his open lips, the faintest hint of dark eyes beneath darker lashes. Sei was still watching him, still calling his name. He let his lips curve against Sei's skin, his body aching with want as his hands slid lower, easily pulling open the towel lying over Sei's hips.

Mink's hands moved to lift Sei's hips up, gently urging him further onto the bed, leaving the towel behind completely. Sei seemed to catch on to the motion, shifting and pressing himself up to accommodate, until he lay artfully at the center of the bed, his arms stretched up to where they had fallen against Mink's shoulders, legs spread wide to leave himself completely exposed to Mink's gaze.

The look in his eyes was anything but modest. Though his chest heaved with the force of his breaths and his cheeks flushed a bright and vibrant red, his lips still curved into a playful smile. As Mink's eyes took him in, he let his hips cant up, his back arching to provide Mink with a better view of his pale thighs, of the thick red line of his cock rising up over his belly.

Mink let out a low, amused exhale at the display.

"Is there something you're trying to show me?"

"Yes," Sei answered easily. His voice had taken on a breathless and husky quality now. "I want you to see all of me."

Mink swallowed hard. The change in Sei's voice left his pulse hammering harder in his chest and between his legs. "All of you?"

Slowly, he drew his hands down against the outside of Sei's thighs. His head dropped, his eyes following the motion of them, watching as they dipped slightly inward against Sei's knees before momentary flaring out again with the smooth line of his calves. He flicked a glance back up to Sei, a smirk spreading across his lips when he saw Sei's smile, before he looked back down. His fingers curled around Sei's ankles, tracing where bone jutted against skin there, before he drew his hands back, leaving only his fingertips to feather light touches over the top of Sei's feet.

"Then," he rumbled, his voice low as he looked back up to where Sei was spread out before him. "Should I start here?"

Sei tilted his head to the side with a curious hum, dark hair spreading across the bed beneath him.

"Aren't you already looking?"

"That may be true," Mink said. Looking back to where his hands rested over Sei's feet, he curled his palm under the heel of one foot. He lifted it effortlessly. Sei offered no resistance. Nor did he protest when Mink ducked his head to kiss against the arch of his foot, his lips finding the soft, sensitive skin there.

"Mink," was all he said as his breaths grew deeper, lower. The sound of it only urged him on. With gentle, measured kisses, he let his lips move up from the sole of his foot in a reversal of the path that his hand had followed only moments before. He could hear as Sei's breath caught in his throat, yet Sei made no move to stop him as his kisses rounded the curve of his shin, nor as they curled against the back of his knee.

Mink didn't let himself nip or lick against Sei's skin. Each touch was nothing more than a caress of his mouth to Sei's body, an acknowledgement that not only had he seen all that Sei had to offer, but that he wanted it. There was no part of himself that Sei should be ashamed of.

By the time his lips touched against Sei's inner thigh he could more than sense the urgency of Sei's need. Here, as chaste as they were, each kiss drew a soft, insistent sound from Sei's lips. He could see the shift and twitch of the skin on Sei's thighs beneath him. Smirking slightly against them, he tilted his head up enough to catch Sei with a narrow gaze.

"Getting impatient?"

"I told you what I want," Sei said in reply. Mink could hear a petulant pout hidden in the words, the passive plea in Sei's tone. "You haven't given it to me yet."

Mink hummed, low against his skin. His hand stroked over the bottom of Sei's thighs in a soothing motion as he lifted his head up, his lips barely brushing against the tip of Sei's cock as he looked up to face Sei properly.

"I won't deny you," he answered in a low voice, his breath hot against the taut skin of Sei's head. "I want you."

Sei shuddered beneath him, his fingers twisting against the sheets. His lips spread into a wide smile, warm and soft at the edges.

"I want you," Sei echoed, rolling his hips up off the bed to press himself against the teasing heat of Mink's lips.

Obliging him, Mink parted his lips and shifted forward, swallowing Sei down to his hilt in a single motion.

"Mink--" Sei's voice was a moan mingled with a cry. His back arched, his entire body twisting up to meet the rush of Mink's mouth against him, to press himself into the welcome heat.

Mink knew well enough what to do. Eyes closed, he let his throat relax, his tongue pressing flat against the base of Sei's cock as it plunged deeper in, brushing against the back of his throat. His nose buried in the curls of Sei's hair at his base. When he breathed in, the scent was nothing short of intoxicating. Sweat and heat mingled with the crisp edge of life and greenery in a dizzying mix. Even when he pulled back, sealing his lips tight around Sei's length, it was only to push himself down again, to plunge headfirst into the aroma that was the pleasure they shared, their own desires and wants laid bare and filling his lungs with an urgent need.

Sei's moans did everything to help urge him on. He could hear Sei's voice pitching louder, more desperate with every motion of his lips. Some small part of him felt pride, not at himself, but at Sei for being able to vocalize his pleasure in such a way. Sei wanted him, he knew this much, but it was enough to give voice to something that had once been silent. Enough to allow him to speak for needs and wants that would have been cast aside and ignored once before.

When Sei's hands reached to tangle in his dreadlocks, pulling at the strands against his scalp, he savored it. When Sei arched upward, pressing his cock into the back of Mink's throat, he welcomed it.

He swallowed around Sei's length to hear the moans that it drew from him. He hollowed his lips and kneaded at Sei's hips to feel the way that they bucked with the movement. He could feel the press of his own erection against the fabric of his pants, but in this moment there was nothing more than Sei and Sei's pleasure.

It wasn't long at all before Sei's voice pitched higher, his breaths wet and gasping. Mink felt Sei's fingers twist and pull at his hair as stuttered fragments of his name slipped from Sei's lips.

"Mi--ah--I--" Sei gasped. His cock butted against the back of Mink's throat insistently, hips rutting into the wet heat that it found there.

Mink didn't pull away. He lowered himself down, his hands loosening their hold on Sei's thighs to let him thrust frantically and relentlessly into his throat. With a gasping cry, Sei drove himself in, spilling himself completely into Mink's.

The corners of Mink's eyes stung with the faint hint of tears as Sei filled him. He paid them no mind, swallowing around over and over, lingering until he felt Sei's cock twitch and go limp in his mouth. Slowly, he pulled away, his tongue darting out to lick against swollen lips.

Spent and sated, Sei was quite a sight to see. Mink lowered his hips down against the bed, keeping Sei's legs spread as he rose to kneel between them. Sei's chest heaved with deep, gasping breaths through his parted lips. His hands had loosened their hold on Mink's hair, slipping weakly down his cheeks, his throat, until they rested lightly against his broad chest. In the warm light of the hotel room, Mink could see the shine of a fine sheen of sweat against Sei's pale skin.

He smiled at the sight. One hand reached up to curl against Sei's cheek, brushing away a curl of dark hair that had stuck there.

Sei opened his eyes, heavy lashes falling over them as he turned into Mink's touch. He regarded Mink for a moment before a content smile spread over his lips. His hand lifted from his chest, curling over Mink's, fingertips tracing along the back of his palm.

"Was that what you wanted?" Sei's lips curled sinuously around the breathless words.

Mink felt himself smiling in reply, leaning forward to drop a kiss against the corner of Sei's smile. "No, that's not all."

"Ah," Sei breathed against his lips. There was a faint laugh beneath it, giddy with anticipation. "I'm glad."

A deep rumble of approval was Mink's only reply before he pressed his lips to Sei's once more.

They kissed slowly this time, each of them savoring the heat of their pleasure in the slip of their lips and tongues. Mink didn't want to rush Sei before he had a chance to recover, but his own needs were more insistent now. His hands roamed steadily against Sei's body, panning over his sides, his chest. He slid himself forward, fitting his hips between Sei's legs, letting the heat of his erection press ever so slightly against Sei's skin.

He felt Sei's amusement in the soft hum that he gave into their kiss. Eager still, Sei wrapped his arms around Mink's shoulders, letting himself turn into every touch, letting his hips roll into Mink's with a teasing slowness.

Mink could feel the pulse of the heat inside him growing stronger with each touch of Sei's hands to his skin, each shift of Sei beneath him. Fortunately, it wasn't long at all before Sei's body met with his need, Sei's cock hardening once again against the press of his hips and belly.

With a gasp, Mink pulled from the kiss, one hand reaching to retrieve the bottle from the pocket of his pants as he pushed them down about his thighs. He groaned as the thickness of his cock was freed into the air, flushing at how involuntary the sound was. Beneath him, Sei only laughed quietly.

Mink exhaled roughly, a low and amused sound. "What was that?" he said.

"Nothing," Sei said with a deliberate roll of his hips, pressing his cock up against the line of Mink's erection. His grin widened as Mink gasped over him again. "Hurry?"

Mink gave a low rumble of assent. In moments he had the small bottle open, lotion spread over his fingers before he dropped them down to trace against Sei's entrance. He pressed one in, steadily letting it slip in to the last knuckle. His brows furrowed, watching Sei carefully as he pulled back out and pressed in again, spreading the lotion inside of Sei, letting his finger trace against him. Sei only smiled, his hips moving with the press of the motion.

"Insistent, aren't you?" Mink said, a faint tone of amusement coloring his voice. He drew his finger out, circling the tip over the ring of muscle at Sei's entrance before pressing it back in again.

"You're the one who's teasing," Sei said in a breathless reply.

Mink gave a hum, curling his finger to press deeper inside of Sei, dragging it against him, slower than before. "I am?"

Sei writhed beneath him, trying to urge the motion of it faster, deeper. His arms tightened against Mink's shoulders, fingertips digging into the taut skin there with a hint of nail. His dark eyes leveled a flushed gaze on Mink's face, something fiercely determined and wanting hiding behind their depths. "You are."

"Hm," Mink let out a low breath, leaning forward to press his lips to Sei's again.

They met in a brief, heated kiss, before Sei pulled away, the tip of his tongue just barely feathering against Mink's before he pressed himself into the bed. He smiled up at Mink, a provocatively sharp edge to his lips.

Mink smirked. He pressed his finger into Sei as deep as it would go, probing intently for the spot he knew he would find there. The quiet gasp from Sei's lips and the stuttering press of his fingers into Mink's back was all the confirmation he needed that he'd found it.

Pressing firmly against the spot, he matched Sei's smile with one of his own. "Who's teasing now?"

"It's still you, Mink--" Sei said. The words cut away quickly in a low moan as Mink pressed harder, rolling his fingertip in a circle against the spot. Sei's back arched off the bed, his chest pressing flush to Mink's. His hips rolled, twisting in every way that they could to feel more of Mink's touch inside him.

Mink lowered his lips, kissing against the column of Sei's throat that was exposed as Sei's head tossed back, pressing into the bed. As tempting as it would have been to see Sei come undone this way as well, to bring him to the edge again with nothing more than the touch of his fingers instead of his lips and mouth, his own want was mounting.

He pulled his finger from Sei quickly--earning a pleading gasp from his lips--before he pressed in again with two, working them restlessly against Sei's inside. He stretched and spread them, feeling the way that Sei's pulse hammered beneath his lips and teeth, Sei's gasps and moans loud in his ear.

It was nearly too much to bear. His own impatience and desire burned hotter under his skin, a smoldering flame fanned into a blaze by the sound, the scent, the touch of Sei. As he plunged a third finger inside of Sei, Sei's breathless cry wet and hot against the shell of his ear, his free hand fumbled for the discarded lotion bottle, finding it again after a moment.

He nearly came undone at just the touch of his own slicked hand. His teeth bit into the skin of Sei's throat with a low groan of restraint. The sharp point of pain against pleasure sent a shudder through Sei's body, his arms curling tighter against Mink's shoulders, pulling him closer.

"Mink," he breathed, "I want you, Mink."

Mink moaned over the mark he had left on Sei's skin in reply. He wouldn't hold back now. In a swift motion he pulled his fingers from Sei, shifting forward against the bed to line himself up. One hand curled over the pale skin of Sei's thigh, spreading it wider as he lined himself with the other.

When his tip brushed against Sei's entrance, his eyes found Sei's, gazing down on him through the heat of his arousal.

"Sei," he said, the words both a confirmation and a plea.

Sei spread his legs wider beneath him, curling his thighs up to wrap about the sharp edges of Mink's hips, pressing himself closer of Mink's tip.

"Mink," he said in answer, granting Mink everything that he had asked for.

Mink pressed down, his lips sealing over Sei's as he buried himself inside him with a single, swift stroke.

Sei was hot and tight around him. He could almost feel his body at the edge of climax with only the first thrust. Mink had partners before, but it had been so long since the last of them had left his life and none of them held the same significance as Sei did to him now. Never before had he felt the pulse of his cock and the urgent need of his own want resound with the beat of his heart in his chest.

He wanted Sei. He wanted Sei completely. To hear Sei gasp and cry out beneath him with each pressing thrust only urged him on. Sei wanted him as well.

His breath left him in ragged gasps, his hands now holding tight against the skin of Sei's hips, pulling him down in time with each thrust of his cock. He buried himself inside of Sei, deeper, faster, again and again.

Sei's voice was already breathless and hoarse, each exhale bringing Mink's name mingled with his moans. His arms were wound tight around Mink's shoulders, his face buried against the side of Mink's throat. Mink could smell the sweat slick against his skin. Sweet and sharp mingled together as their scents bled into one.

He lost himself in the twist and press of their bodies together. The building heat inside him pushed him on, Sei moving against him with his own insistent need. Mink felt the spike of pleasure inside him as he neared his edge. His hands shook against Sei's skin, fingers pressing harder into pale hips.

One hand left its hold on Sei, reaching up to find the line of his jaw, to trace into the thick, smooth fall of Sei's hair, curling against the back of his neck. He felt Sei fall into the gesture, watching through hazy gold eyes and blown pupils as Sei looked to him, his lips trembling as they formed Mink's name.

"Sei," Mink answered, before his lips claimed Sei's with a urgent moan, his hips driving in deep with the force of his climax spilling inside of Sei.

Through the rush of pleasure that coursed through his body, he was only barely aware of Sei's pleading whine against his lips. Sei's hips jerked against his shuddering cock as he spent himself entirely, still seeking some friction, something that would press him over the edge as well.

Mink's hand moved of its own accord, curling around the heat of Sei's cock. He jerked, swift and relentless, until he felt Sei spill over his hand, heard Sei's stuttered moan against his lips.

Their bodies slowed gradually. The world was warm and blurred at the edges. Mink curved his lips in a gentle kiss against Sei's lips before he pulled away, slipping out of him, leaving both of them quietly gasping for breath.

Sei's eyes met his, half open with the sated exhaustion of their pleasure. Mink felt a warm smile against his lips. His hand carded gently through Sei's hair, moving to cup his cheek, thumb brushing lightly across the flush of his cheek. Sei smiled, turning his face into the gesture.

"Thank you," he said with a kiss dropped against the skin of Mink's palm.

A low sound rumbled from Mink's chest. "You don't need to thank me," he said. He paused a moment, his lips pursing quietly as something shifted within his chest, settling in a way that was both unfamiliar and familiar at once. "This is the path that you've chosen. This is the gift that you've been given."

Sei turned at Mink's words. His fingers stroked slowly against Mink's back as he regarded him for a quiet moment. "It's the same for both of us, isn't it?"

Mink nodded slowly. He leaned forward to drop a gentle kiss to Sei's forehead. "It's the same."

"I'm glad," Sei said.

Mink shifted over him, turning the lights off and pulling the covers up and over them both before he settled into the bed at Sei's side.

"Get some sleep," he said in a soft, intimate voice. "Tomorrow we've got a long journey ahead of us."

Sei nodded, turning to press against Mink's chest. His hand sought out Mink's, lacing their fingers together loosely. In the city-lit dark of the hotel room, Mink listened until Sei's breathing slowed with the weight of sleep. He gazed down at the shadowed curves of Sei's face, tracing them with his eyes in the darkness as he breathed out.

"You are the path I've chosen to follow as well," he said in a tight whisper, no louder than a sigh. "The gods didn't send you to me as a tool but as a lesson. You've shown me what sort of life can be born from destruction.

"Sei," He paused for a moment, letting the name hang in the quiet of the room. "You are my new life."

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's all I wrote.
> 
> I want to thank everyone for sticking around with me for the whole thing. I'm glad that I've been able to share my love of this rare pair with everyone who's read this far.
> 
> Special thanks goes to [Harukami]() for inspiring me in this ship and getting me into DMMD in the first place and to Haru and [Tiger]() for providing beta services throughout this whole ordeal. They are both magnificent people. My thanks also goes out to anyone who has left kudos, comments, or recs. You are all fantastic people and I adore you. <3


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